No. 5 ECU Hits the Road for Saint Louis
May 06, 2004 | Baseball
ABOUT THE PIRATES
No. 5 East Carolina had its 19-game winning streak snapped when UNC Wilmington routed the Pirates, 15-5, Tuesday night in the final game at Harrington Field. The Pirates head to Saint Louis for a three-game Conference USA series with its 17-game conference win streak on the line. It will be ECU's first trip to Saint Louis. The Pirates reached the top 7 in all four national collegiate baseball polls this week including the No. 5 ranking which is the highest ranking in school history. East Carolina swept its fifth straight Conference USA series last weekend defeating Houston, 11-10, 5-3 and 9-5. Senior Ryan Jones homered twice including an inside-the-park home run to help the Pirates complete the series sweep of the Cougars and earned Conference USA Hitter of the Week honors for the second time this season. Jones continues to lead the nation in slugging percentage at 1.014 on the season. Lead-off hitter Jamie Paige continues to stay hot for the Pirates. Paige finished 2-for-3 against UNCW and added a 9-for-15 performance with seven runs scored, one double and two RBI against Houston last weekend including the winning run in the series opener. Sophomore 2B Trevor Lawhorn continues to lead the conference in home runs and needs three more to set a new ECU single-season record.
ABOUT THE BILLIKENS
Saint Louis took the mid-week off after winning its first C-USA series of the season at Cincinnati. The Billikens took the first game of the series, 7-5, and won the rubber game Sunday, 6-2. Senior IF Aaron Thompson hit .400 with a team-high six hits last week and has raised his batting average more than 40 points over the last two weeks, going 14-for-31 (.452) over that span. Freshman RHP Ryan Bird picked up the win in the series finale, allowing just two runs on three hits over 6 2/3 innings. Freshman C Casey Moore drove in a career-best four runs on Saturday, including three on his first collegiate home run. Reliever-turned starter Dave Guntorius picked up his third win of the season in Friday's opener. As a team, Saint Louis hits .262 while the pitching staff has struggled posting a 7.64 team ERA. SLU will throw the rotation of RHP Guntorius (3-5, 5.02 ERA), LHP Tim Landy (0-6, 7.02 ERA) and Bird (2-5, 4.84 ERA).
IN THE POLLS
East Carolina cracked the top 7 in all four national collegiate polls. The Pirates are ranked No. 5 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association, No. 6 by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. The Pirates are 7th by Sports Weekly and the Coaches Poll. ECU is also ranked 2nd among southeastern schools by SEBaseball.com. ECU stands at 15th in the College RPI index released by boydsworld.com.
ECU - SAINT LOUIS SERIES
Saint Louis leads the all-time series with the Pirates, 2-1, with the only meeting coming during the 2002 season when the Billikens won the series in Greenville. East Carolina makes its first trip to Saint Louis since joining Conference USA.
LAST TIME AGAINST THE SEAHAWKS
SLU's Corey Webster held No. 14 East Carolina to one hit through seven innings and the Billikens scored six runs off the fourth-best pitching staff in the country to take the series opener, 6-2, at Harrington. Saint Louis took the second game of the series, 2-1, behind a complete game four-hitter by Corey Lawson. ECU avoided the series sweep when Davey Penny struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings before giving way to Greg Bunn who picked up his fifth save.
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
Some ECU players have moved into the Top 10 in several Pirate records. Trevor Lawhorm is now three away from the single season home run record (23) while Ryan Jones is five homers away. Jones also needs four doubles to break the old single season record (22). Darryl Lawhorn has now moved into third place in career home runs (41), 7th place with 227 career hits and 154 RBI. Freshman Mike Flye has already moved into a tie for 7th place in single-season saves (4).
UP NEXT
East Carolina will play five games next week beginning with a road trip to UNC Wilmington Tuesday.
