Pirates Go For Sweep Of Tigers
May 09, 2010 | Softball
May 9, 2010
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - After claiming its first Conference USA regular season championship yesterday, the East Carolina softball team goes for the series sweep of Memphis Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. If the Tigers are shut out again, the Pirates would become the first team in C-USA history to blank opponents in three league series in the same season.
Leading The Country ...
With the release of the NCAA statistics through May 2, East Carolina is ranked first in the nation with a .982 fielding percentage. The Pirates had committed just 23 errors in 50 games entering the weekend. For the past three seasons, ECU has not finished lower than third in the country in fielding percentage (second in 2007, .977; third in 2008, .980; third in 2009, .978).
Few Runs Allowed In April, And The Beginning Of May ...
Junior Toni Paisley and sophomore Faith Sutton turned in their best work of the season in April, limiting opponents to just 17 runs. The duo continued the hot streak into May, blanking Southern Miss in all three games last weekend, Elon twice Thursday and Memphis twice Saturday. Since the beginning of April, East Carolina has scored more runs in the fifth inning alone (21) than foes have total.
School Record For Blankings...
The seven consecutive shutouts to begin the month of May establishes an East Carolina program record. The previous best was five shutouts from March 1-7, 1992.
The Second-Fewest Allowed Ever ...
The 17 runs Paisley and Sutton allowed in April were the second fewest East Carolina had allowed in program history during a month in which the team played 10 games or more. In February 2003, the Pirates yielded 12 runs, but played just 11 games. Last month, ECU played 18 games and still surrendered only 17 runs.
Lots Of Zeros ...
This season, of the Pirates’ 38 wins, a school-record 28 have been shutouts.
Among The Nation’s Best ...
In addition to leading the nation in fielding percentage, East Carolina’s 1.63 earned run average is the ninth best.
Individually, senior Charina Sumner is 13th in triples (5) and 25th in triples per game (0.1). Paisley ranks second nationally in shutouts (16), 12th in hits allowed per seven innings (3.61) and in ERA (1.15), 14th in strikeouts (290) and 17th in victories (24).
