East Carolina Baseball Notebook (Weekly Recap)
May 22, 2011 | Baseball
May 22, 2011
No. 30 East Carolina recorded its first Conference USA series sweep of the season taking three games on the road at Tulane and finishing the regular season with a 37-18 record.
With their sweep of the Green Wave, the Pirates earned the No. 3 seed at the 2011 C-USA Baseball Championships presented by Trustmark, which will begin on Wednesday, May 25.
The Pirates, who are 15-15 all-time in C-USA post-season action, will open the championships against sixth seed Houston (25-30) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. (EDT), before playing No. 7 Tulane (30-24) on Thursday at 5 p.m. (EDT) and No. 2 Southern Miss (38-15) Friday at 8:30 p.m. (EDT).
East Carolina Pirates (37-18, 14-10 C-USA)
National Ranking: No. 30 by NCBWA and Receiving Votes by USA Today as of May 16, 2011
Current Streak: W-3
Last Week: 3-1
May 17 - Loss vs. Old Dominion (7-4)
May 19 - Win at Tulane (5-1)
May 20 - Win at Tulane (6-2)
May 21 - Win at Tulane (7-6 in 11 inn.)
Upcoming Week:
2011 Conference USA Championships (Pearl, Miss.)
May 25 - vs. (6) Houston (5 p.m. EDT)
May 26 - vs. (7) Tulane (5 p.m. EDT)
May 27 - vs. (2) Southern Miss (8:30 p.m. EDT)
May 28 - Championship Game (8:30 p.m. EDT)
Pirate Hitter-of-the-Week
Jack Reinheimer, Freshman, SS
Reinheimer was instrumental in helping the Pirates record their first-ever series sweep over Tulane and secure the No. 3 seed in the 2011 Conference USA Championships where he batted a team-best .583 (7-for-12) ... Currently riding an eight-game hit streak, Reinheimer collected multi-hits in all three games against the Green Wave going 6-for-10 with two runs scored and three walks ... In midweek action against former CAA foe Old Dominion he was 1-for-2 with a RBI (sac fly) and a walk ... He followed that with a 2-for-4 performance against Tulane reaching on a bunt single and lacing a base hit to left field ... He also added a sac bunt that led to the Pirates' first run of the game ... In the series clinching win over Tulane (ECU's first-ever) he reached base three times going 2-for-4 and was hit by a pitch ... On Saturday he was perfect at the plate reaching bases five times going 2-for-2 with three walks and scored two runs including the game winner in 11th inning ... In the third inning he led off with a single to center and scored the games first run giving ECU an early 2-0 lead ... He walked in his next two at-bats before he singled to left field ... In extra innings he led off the 11th with a walk, reached second on sac bunt and scored on Thompson's single up the middle for a 7-6 win ... On the season he shares the team lead in batting (333 /62-for-186) with Trent Whitehead ... He has 21 RBIs, scored 32 runs, four doubles and 16 multi-hit contest in 52 games (48 starts).
Pirate Pitcher-of-the-Week
Seth Maness, Senior, RHP
Maness picked up the series clinching win over Tulane (ECU's first-ever) in Friday night's 6-2 victory ... The senior from Pinehurst, N.C. became ECU's all-time wins leader (36) after working six innings where he allowed one run (unearned) on four hits with a walk and one strikeout ... The win was his third career against the Green Wave, eighth of the season and 23rd career versus C-USA opponents ... Maness, who also ranks second all-time in C-USA career wins (360, set the tone early in the game retiring Tulane in order in the first three frames ... Until the fifth frame only one runner reached second base and the lone run came on an errant throw during a double-play attempt ... In all, six runners reached base (four hits, walk, error) ... On the season he owns an 8-3 record with three complete games and one shutout in 13 starts ... He has tossed 87.0 innings (fifth in C-USA) recording 67 strikeouts to just 14 walks and boasts a career-best 2.07 ERA.
PIRATE NOTES:
During ECU's four-game week, the starting pitching allowed six runs (four earned0 in 20.2 innings of work posting a 2-0 record with eighth strikeouts, five walks and three quality starts (6.0 IP and three or less earned runs) ... Mike Wright recorded his first win in conference play in the series opener against Tulane ... The right-hander allowed one run (earned) on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts in six innings ... Against the Green Wave he threw 18 of 23 first pitch strikes and retired 19 of 22 batters faced ... In his 14 starts, Wright has eight quality starts and has worked into the sixth inning seven times ... He owns a 6-3 record with a 2.95 ERA, 66 strikeouts and has allowed 34 runs (28 earned) on 69 hits in 85.1 innings ... Kevin Brandt posted his sixth quality start of the season in a no-decision in the series finale against Tulane ... The left-hander scattered seven hits over seven innings allowing two runs (one earned) with a pair of punch outs ... This season he has posted a 6-3 record, one of four Pirates with at least six victories, with a 2.27 ERA in 17 appearances (10 starts) ... Brandt has tossed one complete game, combined on three shutouts and allowed 29 runs (21 earned0 in 83.1 innings with 57 strikeouts ... Senior Brad Mincey appeared in three games (all in relief) working six total innings where he allowed three runs (all earned) on five hits with four walks and six punch outs ... During the ECU's sweep of Tulane, Mincey collected a pair of saves pushing his season total to three ... He combined on a two-hitter with Wright in game one tossing three shutout innings and followed that up with another shutout inning of relief in the series finale ... In all he had four shutout innings without allowing a hit posting four strikeouts and issuing four walks ... This season he sports the third-lowest ERA in the nations (1.23) while owning a 5-3 record ... Mincey has combined on two shutouts where he has allowed 16 run (eight earned) with 45 strikeouts to just 14 walks in 58.2 innings ... Closer Seth Simmons also appeared in three of ECU's four games where he allowed one run (earned) on four hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 4.2 frames ... Simmons recorded his 13th career win in Saturday's extra-inning victory.
Offensively the Pirates continued their hot hitting on the week batting .331 (46-for-139) recording double-digit hits in 3 of 4 games ... ECU averaged 11.3 hits and 6.0 runs during its first-ever series sweep of Tulane ... Five of ECU's nine starters in the lineup batted over .400 on the week with Reinheimer leading the way hitting at a .583 clip ... Trent Whitehead continued his hot hitting raising his season average to .333 (73-for-219) after logging seven hits in four games ... The Washington, N.C. native batted .438 (7-for-16) and led the team with three doubles, five runs, four walks and two stolen bases on the week ... He also collected multi-hits in three games and had his string of eight-straight contests with two or more hits snapped with a 1-for-5 performance in Saturday's game ... Whitehead is riding a nine-game hit streak where he is batting .513 (20-for-39) with 11 runs scored, six doubles and five RBI ... Currently he ranks among ECU's all-time leaders in doubles (59/2nd), runs (194/4th), games played (229/5th), hits (283/6th), average (.341/9th) and stolen bases (44/12th) ... Ben Fultz collected a pair of three-hit games in the Tulane series and batted .429 (6-for-14) on the week pushing his season average to .301 (46-for-153) ... The freshman outfielder drove in three runs, laced two doubles and scored a run last week ... Junior Zach Wright belted his team leading 13th home run of the season and 30th of his career Friday sending a first pitch offering from Conrad Flynn over the left field wall in the fourth inning ... He also batted .429 (6-for-14) on the week with a pair of doubles, four runs scored and four RBI, while slugging a team-best .786 ... Wright, who has started all 55 games behind the dish, is currently batting .292 (59-for-202) with 39 RBIs, 45 runs and has an eight-game hitting streak in tact ... Fellow classmate Corey Thompson extended his current hit streak to 15 games in league play after recording consecutive multi-hit games to close out the regular season ... Thompson drove in three of ECU's seven runs Saturday, which included a solo home run in the fifth and a single in the 11th that pushed across Reinheimer for the game-winning run ... Senior Austin Homan's pinch hit two-RBI single in the ninth inning on Thursday, helped secure ECU's 5-1 victory over Tulane.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
Nine pitchers with at least 15.0 innings of work have an ERA of 3.32 or lower with six having a sub-2.32 ERA ... On a national scale, the Pirates are seventh in ERA (2.57) and are 14th in opposing batting average (.236) ... They have allowed 142 earned runs (12th fewest) ... ECU owns an 13-6 record in one-run games and 13 of its 17 losses have been run two runs or less ... In 34 home games the Pirates are averaging 2,926 fans per contest and have ushered in 99,516 fans through the turnstiles, both ranking among the national leaders ... Last week (May 18) ECU was 31 in the NCAA RPI rankings ... Currently they are ranked 30th by both Boyd's World and Warren Nolan ... The Pirates starter's own a 2.75 ERA, while the bullpen boasts a 2.29 ERA allowing 66 runs (48 earned) in 189.0 innings ... ECU has recorded six come from behind wins when trailing after the eighth inning ... They have 11 wins during their last-at bats of a game with three walk-offs ... In league play the Pirates finished 5-3 in series openers, 1-7 in game two's and 8-0 in series finales.
