No. 18 Pirates Ready for Rematch with UNC Wilmington
March 30, 2004 | Baseball
ABOUT THE PIRATES
No. 18 East Carolina continues its nine-game road swing when it heads to in-state foe UNC Wilmington, Wednsday. The Pirates took two of three games on the road at Memphis last weekend and remain ranked in the Top 25 in three of the four major collegiate baseball polls. East Carolina is five games ahead of its pace from last season, when it earned its 21st victory on April 6. Twin brothers Darryl and Trevor Lawhorn combined to go 13-for-27 with four home runs, three doubles, seven runs scored and 10 RBI against Memphis. The Lawhorns also homered for the first time in the same inning when Darryl hit a two-run home run and Trevor followed with a solo shot in the fifth. First baseman Ryan Norwood hit .533 (8-for-15) last week with an .867 slugging percentage. He hit safely in all four games, totaling three doubles and one triple, while driving in five and stealing a career-high three bases against Campbell. ECU's pitching staff continued to sit down batters on strikes. Pirate pitchers struck out 47 in 35 innings over the last four games, led by Greg Bunn's career-high 11 against Memphis on Saturday and Matt Bishop's 10 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in two appearances last week.
ABOUT THE SEAHAWKS
UNC Wilmington finished last week 3-1 after winning its Colonial Athletic Association
series opener over James Madison and shutting out No. 23 N.C. State, 1-0.
Left-hander Zach Kimball earned Co-Pitcher-of-the-Week honors from the Colonial
Athletic Association. Kimball earned his first win of the season with 7 1/3 scoreless
innings, striking out six aginst the Wolfpack last Tuesday. Chip Grawey and Matt
Sutton combined to go 24-for-49 with 11 RBI in five games last week. Grawey is hitting
.384 with six doubles, one home run and 10 RBI. Sutton is second on the team in RBI
(18) while hitting .356 with six doubles and three home runs. As a team, the Seahawks
hit .300 led by Jonathan Batts who sports a .415 batting clip including 10 doubles and
two home runs. UNCW's pitching staff has posted a 5.38 team ERA with 159 strikeouts
in 222 2/3 innings. Kimball (1-2, 7.27 ERA) will make his second straight start against
a ranked team Wednesday.
IN THE POLLS
East Carolina enters this week 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 27th by Collegiate
Baseball. The Pirates are also ranked 13th among southeastern schools by
SEBaseball.com.
ECU-UNC WILMINGTON SERIES
ECU leads the all-time series with the Seahawks, 55-49, but UNCW won both meetings
last season, 4-3 and 4-3. The Pirates have lost the last three meetings to the
Seahawks. East Carolina last defeated UNCW, May 1, 2002, 3-1, in Greenville. The last
time ECU won in Wilmington, the Pirates shut out the Seahawks in two games to win
the CAA series.
LAST TIME AGAINST THE SEAHAWKS
Pinch-hitter Mitch Williams delivered a two-out RBI double with a runner at second to
score the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run in the seventh inning to lift UNC
Wilmington over East Carolina, 4-3, in Wilmington last season. Ryan Norwood was the
Pirates leading hitter, going 3-for-4 with three singles. In the first meeting of the
season in Greenville, two base on balls, an error and a base hit by Chip Grawey in the
ninth inning propelled UNC Wilmington to a 4-3 victory over East Carolina at Harrington
Field. The Pirates entered the final frame holding a 3-2 advantage.
NOTING THE PIRATES
Junior college transfer Drew Costanzo has been hot lately after making his way into the
line-up as the left fielder. Costanzo has gone 13-for-26 at the plate in the last 10
games with a home run a double and five RBI. He is currently fourth on the team in
batting average (.333).
Third baseman Mark Minicozzi had his five-game hitting streak snapped at Campbell
last Wednesday but Minicozzi tacked on more runs. He is the only Pirate thus far with
at least 20 runs scored and 20 RBI with 24 total runs scored and 22 RBI.
Junior right-hander Matt Bishop has become a top choice out of the bullpen after
recovering from surgery. Bishop has made five appearances this season posting a 1.93
ERA. He has struck out 14 in 9 1/3 innings while holding opponents to two earned
runs.
ECU has been a second-half kind of team on offense in 2004. Of the Pirates 170 runs
scored, 103 have come in or after the fifth inning. ECU has outscored opponents 24-5
in the fifth inning and 33-15 in the sixth inning.
YOUNG ARMS OF STEEL
Through 24 games in 2004, East Carolina has already used five true freshmen
pitchers. Right-hander Ricky Brooks (1-2, 3.92 ERA, 15 K's) worked his way into the
starting rotation. Out of the bullpen, the Pirates have been counting on local product,
right-hander Mike Flye (1-2, 1.62 ERA, 21 K's), left-hander Dustin Sasser (1-0, 3.57
ERA, 15 K's), right-hander Shane Mathews (3-0, 2.01 ERA, 15 K's) and left-hander John
Emmert (0-0, 3.38 ERA, 5 K's). The five combined are 6-4 posting a 2.81 ERA with four
saves producing 71 strikeouts in 80 innings.
ON THE AIR
All four games this week including the mid-week contest at UNC Wilmington and the
C-USA weekend series at Charlotte will be available throughout eastern North Carolina
on the newly expanded Pirate Sports Network. Carrying over 30 games on the network
this season is WGHB (1250 AM - Pirate Radio 1250) in Farmville/Greenville. Patrick
Johnson will call play-by-play in 2004 and will be joined by guest commentators
througout the season. Former ECU head coach Gary Overton will join Johnson this
week. All games on the Pirate Sports Network can be heard live on the internet through
ECUpirates.com, the official web site of ECU athletics.
HOME RUN RARITY
Conference USA players have now done something three times this season that has
never been
accomplished in major league baseball ? twins hitting home runs in the same game.
ECU's Trevor and Darryl Lawhorn have hit round-trippers in the same game against
UNC Asheville on Feb. 14 and Memphis on Mar. 28, while USF's Jeff and Brian Baisley
each went deep against Jacksonville on Feb. 21. The Lawhorns took it one step further
on Sunday when they became the first twins to homer in the same inning. In MLB, only
two twin brothers, Eddie and Johnny O'Brien and Ozzie and Jose Canseco have ever
played for the same team, helping make the feat more difficult to achieve at that
level.
OH SO CLOSE
Six runs separate East Carolina from being 25-2 on the season. The Pirates have a
3-4 record away from Harrington Field, but all four losses on the road have come by a
combined six runs. ECU dropped three games to nationally ranked Arizona State in
Tempe by a combined five runs, 7-6, 6-4 and 7-5. Memphis defeated ECU, 6-5, in the
first game of a Conference USA Series. The Pirates' other two losses are to nationally
ranked Tulane in Greenville, 14-10 in 11 innings and 9-0.
HOT BATS East Carolina posted double-digits in hits in its last four games last week. The Pirates had at least 10 hits in three games last week including a season-high 16 hits against Memphis in a 7-1 win Saturday. ECU posted 10 hits against Campbell and 14 hits in the series finale at Memphis. In the last seven games, the Pirates have racked up 79 hits averaging 11.3 hits per contest while hitting .311 as a team.
LUCKY No. 20
ECU earned win No. 20 last Saturday when the Pirates defeated Memphis, 7-1.
Southern Miss and East Carolina are the only two Conference USA teams to make it to
the 20-win mark thus far in the season. The last time East Carolina finished the month
of March with 20 wins, the Pirates won at least 43 games including 46 wins in 1999, 46
wins in 2000, 47 wins in 2001 and 43 wins in 2002.
EAST CAROLINA IN CONFERENCE USA STATISTICAL CATEGORIES
East Carolina leads Conference USA in several statistical categories. ECU is ranked
either first or second in at least 10 of the major pitching categories. Pirate pitchers are
first in ERA (2.63), opponent batting average (.223), innings pitched (243), strikeouts
(235), wins (21), earned runs allowed (71) and runs allowed (86). ECU pitchers rank
second in saves (7), runners picked off (7) and hits allowed (197). On offense, the
Pirates are first in home runs (38), fourth in doubles (50) and total bases (440), and
fifth in runs scored (170), hits (264) and RBI (159). ECU boast the best fielding team
in C-USA leading the conference in fielding percentage (.972), chances (1046), putouts
(729) and assists (288).
PIRATE PLAYERS IN CONFERENCE USA STATISTICAL CATEGORIES
Several ECU players are at the top of Conference USA in several different statistical
categories. Junior right-handed picther Greg Bunn leads the conference in strikeouts
(52) and opponent batting average (.159) while fellow weekend starter Brody Taylor is
second in strikeouts (48). Carter Harrell (1.67), Bunn (2.34) and Taylor (3.13) are all
ranked in the top 12 in ERA. On offense, Ryan Jones leads C-USA in slugging
percentage (.918) after recording 19 extra-base hits this season. ECU also has three
of the top home run hitters in Trevor Lawhorn (3rd, 9 HR), Jones (5th, 8 HR) and Mark
Minicozzi (10th, 6 HR). Jamie Paige is second in drawing walks (20) and first in total
plate appearances (127) while shortstop Billy Richardson is third in C-USA with nine
stolen bases.
UP NEXT East Carolina continues its road swing when the Pirates head to Conferene USA foe Charlotte for a three-game series. Friday's first-pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
