East Carolina Baseball Notebook (Weekly Recap)
March 27, 2011 | Baseball
March 27, 2011
East Carolina picked up a series win over Memphis in the opening weekend of Conference USA action as Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. The Pirates won the series opener Friday night behind a complete game performance from Seth Maness, his second of the season, and clinched the series when Zach Wright hit a walk-off two-run home run Saturday game two of the doubleheader.
The Pirates will have a full week ahead as they play four of their five games on the road traveling to UNC Wilmington on Tuesday before heading to UAB this weekend. Their lone home game is against Elon on Wednesday with a first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. (EST).
East Carolina Pirates (18-5)
National Ranking: Receiving Votes (NCBWA and USA Today) as of Mar. 21, 2011
Current Streak: W-1
Last Week: 2-1 (Series win over Memphis)
Mar. 25 Win vs. Memphis (3-2)
Mar. 26 Loss vs. Memphis (3-2) - Game 1 DH
Mar. 26 Win vs. Memphis (5-3) - Game 2 DH
Upcoming Week
Away vs. UNC Wilmington (Mar. 29)
Home vs. Elon (Mar. 30)
Away vs. UAB (April 1-3)
Pirate Hitter of the Week
Jack Reinheimer, Freshman, SS
Reinheimer led the Pirates with a .556 (5-for-9) average during their series win over Memphis in Conference USA play ... The true freshman was 3-for-3 at the dish in ECU's 5-3 come from behind win over the Tigers on Saturday in game two of the doubleheader ... In the series opener he was 2-for-3, scored the game-winning run and extended his current hitting streak to a career-best six games six games ... On the weekend he recorded a pair of multi-hit games and his three hits in game two of the DH was a new career-high ... He also led the squad in hits (5), slugging percentage (,667) and on-base percentage (.636), while tying Zach Wright with six total bases ... On the season he is batting a team second-best .328 (20-for-61) with eight runs, seven RBI and leads ECU with four game-winning RBI.
Pirate Pitcher of the Week
Seth Maness, Senior, RHP
Maness picked up his fourth win of the season and 32nd of his career in the series opener against Memphis on Friday ... The right-hander tossed his second complete game of the season (two in last four outings) allowing two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and one walk ... He used 96 pitches for his third career C-USA complete game and retired 16 of the final 17 batters ... Maness retired the side in order six times and faced four batters in an inning twice ... Used six or fewer pitches to retire the side in the fifth, sixth and eight frames ... With the win, Maness improved to 19-3 all-time against C-USA opponents ... Has worked seven or more innings in 5 of 6 starts this season (7.0 vs. YSU; CG vs. Pepperdine; 7.0 vs. Monmouth; 10.0 vs. Rutgers and CG vs. Memphis) ... He boasts a 32-9 career record with his 32 wins ranking first among active NCAA pitchers, while his 295 strikeouts is fifth most amongst active NCAA hurlers ... On the season he is 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA ... He has 41 punch outs to just five walks and has allowed 17 runs (10 earned) on 33 hits in 45.1 innings ... Opposing hitters are batting .201 against him.
PIRATE NOTES
Seth Simmons, who became the school's all-time saves leader (24) on March 19 continued his dominance out of the bullpen working 1.1 scoreless innings of relief on the weekend ... He picked up his third win of the season against Memphis in the series clincher striking out the side in the ninth ... In 12 appearances he has not allowed a runs in 12.2 innings (0.00 ERA), given up just four hits, struck out 20 and walked six ... He is 3-0 with four saves and has held opposing hitters to a .100 average.
Senior RHP Brad Mincey extended his scoreless streak to 22.0 innings before allowing a run in the seventh inning against Memphis in game one of the doubleheader ... He worked a total of 2.2 innings of relief allowing one run (unearned) on three hits with a walk and strikeout in two appearances ... On the season, the Wilmington, N.C. native owns a 0.36 ERA, which leads C-USA and ranks second nationally ... He is 4-1 on the season tying him with Maness and Mike Wright for the team lead and has allowed two runs (one earned) in 25.1 innings with 18 punch outs to five walks ... Opposing hitters are batting .193 against him.
Zach Wright smacked his team leading seventh home run in the series clincher against Memphis in walk-off fashion ... The junior catcher recorded his first career walk-off hit belting a two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied and two outs ... Wright also leads the team with 18 RBI and 18 runs scored and has started all 23 games behind the dish ... Currently he is batting .296 (24-for-81), which ranks fourth on the team.
Junior's Mike Wright and Kevin Brandt each had solid starts over the weekend ... Wright went five innings allowing two runs (both earned) on five his with seven strikeouts and six walks in a no decision ... Brandt recorded his second consecutive quality start going seven innings allowing three runs (one earned) with three walks and a pair of strikeouts ... On the season Wright owns a 4-0 record in six starts boasting a 2.06 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 35.0 innings ... Brandt, who has made three starts on the year, is 2-0 with an impressive 0.84 ERA ... He ranks second on the team with 28 punch outs in 32.0 innings and has allowed eight runs (three earned) on 20 hits.
Sophomore left-hander Jake Harris appeared in a pair of games on the weekend tossing 2.0 scoreless innings with a walk and strikeout ... On the season he has made 11 appearances, which ranks third behind Mincey (13) and Simmons (12), and sports a 0.93 ERA ... In 9.2 innings, Harris has allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with 11 strikeouts, two walks and combined on two of ECU's five shutouts.
Along with Reinheimer, true freshmen Ben Fultz and Jonathan Holt are batting over .300 on the season ... Fultz collecting four hits in the series with a RBI and run scored and raised his average to .326 (15-for-46), which ranks third on the squad ... Holt, who has started 4 of 5 games as the Pirates designated hitter, collected another hit over the weekend and is batting .385 (5-for-13) with three RBI.
Head Coach Billy Godwin recorded his 474th career and 211th Pirate win against Memphis in game two of the doubleheader on March 26 ... Currently he ranks third all-time in the win column and is two wins away from passing former Pirate skipper Keith LeClair (212) for second place.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Seven pitchers with at least eight innings or work have an ERA of 2.25 or lower and five with a sub-2.00 ERA ... On a national scale, the Pirates rank second in ERA (1.67) and opposing batting average (.203) ... They have allowed 39 earned runs (sixth) and tossed five shutouts (t-8th) ... ECU owns an 8-3 record in one-run games and a 2-1 ledger in two-run contests through 23 games ... In 18 home games the Pirates are averaging 2,965 fans per contest which ranks in the Top-20 in national attendance ... ECU ranks fifth nationally in defensive runs per game (2.7), ninth in overall wins (18) and tied for 12th in winning percentage (78.3) ... ECU's starters own a 2.32 ERA, while the bullpen boasts a 0.57 ERA allowing 12 runs (five earned) in 78.1 innings.
