No. 18 ECU Travels Over to Campbell
March 24, 2004 | Baseball
ABOUT THE PIRATES
No. 18 East Carolina opens its nine-game road swing with a trip down Interstate 95 for the team's second meeting with in-state foe Campbell. The Pirates look to get back on track after dropping its first home series since the 2002 season last weekend to No. 14 Tulane. ECU won the first game, 6-3, before falling, 14-10, in 11 innings Saturday night and, 9-0, Sunday. Senior Ryan Jones led the Pirates in the series going 6-for-13 with two homers, a double and five RBI. Jones leads the team hitting .429 with 16 extra base-hits inlcuding eight home runs and seven doubles. Sophomore third baseman Mark Minicozzi is the top RBI-leader with 21 off a team-high 31 hits. ECU continues to rank at the top of Conference USA in home runs. The Pirates have homered 33 times through 23 games. Junior lefty P.J. Connelly will make his second start for the Pirates Wednesday. Connelly (1-0) has posted a 5.23 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 10.1 innings.
ABOUT THE CAMELS
Campbell (9-12) has won nine of its last 16 games since falling to ECU, 10-2, back in February. The Camels look to snap a three-game skid Wednesday. UCF swept Campbell over the weekend, 2-0, 6-0 and 4-3. Campbell has one win over a ranked team this season. The Camels held off No. 10 Florida Atlantic, 3-2, on the road. Joe Anthonsen has been leading the offense hitting .387 with 29 hits including three doubles and one home run producing 12 RBI. Jeff Randol has driven in 18 runs on 23 hits while Tom Rispoli has driven in 17 runs with two doubles and five home runs. Senior right-hander Rob Finch (0-1, 13.91 ERA) makes his fourth start for the Camels on Wednesday.
IN THE POLLS
East Carolina enters this weekend ranked as high as 18th in national collegiate polls. The Pirates are 18th by Baseball America, 22nd by the Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches' Poll, 23rd by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association and 25th by Collegiate Baseball. The Pirates are also ranked 13th among southeastern schools by SEBaseball.com.
ECU-CAMPBELL SERIES
ECU leads the all-time series with the Camels 46-17 with ECU winning the first meeting this season, 10-2. The teams split the series last season. The Pirates won in Buies Creek last season, 6-3, while the Camels topped ECU at Harrington Field last season, 4-1.
LAST TIME AGAINST CAMPBELL Carter Harrell struck out six in five innings and East Carolina's offense pounded out 11 hits as the Pirates knocked off Campbell, 10-2, at Harrington Field. ECU ran its record to 4-0 while the Camels fell to 0-5 on the season. Trevor Lawhorn led ECU's offense going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI. Ryan Norwood, celebrating his 21st birthday, was 2-for-3 at the plate with three runs scored and two RBI. Four ECU pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts. Harrell picked up his second win of the season allowing only two hits in the five innings and walking one in his first start for the Pirates. Josh Blades (0-3) suffered his third loss of the season for the Camels. Blades gave up five earned runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings. ECU scored four runs in each the third and fourth innings to jump out to an 8-0 lead.
UP NEXT
East Carolina continues its nine-game road trip when the Pirates head west to take on Memphis in the second Conference USA series of the season.
