Pirates Go For Sweep Sunday
March 24, 2012 | Softball
March 24, 2012
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| East Carolina Game 30: UTEP Sunday, March 25 | 12:00 p.m. ET Greenville, N.C. (ECU Softball Stadium) |
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GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina (12-17, 2-3 C-USA) goes for its first sweep of the Conference USA season Sunday with a 12:00 p.m. contest against UTEP (12-20, 2-6 C-USA).
Saturday, the Pirates topped the Miners twice, recording a 12-4 victory in five innings and using three runs in the bottom of the seventh to capture an 11-10 win. ECU's 23 runs during the doubleheader are more than the program has scored in any Conference USA series since pushing across 24 in three games at Southern Miss May 5-6, 2007. East Carolina enters Sunday's finale batting .307 in C-USA contests, scoring 7.0 runs per game and walking 5.6 times per tilt.
The Saturday sweep also improved the Pirates' record to 7-3 in home games. A win Sunday would even the ECU's league record at 3-3, the same mark the squad had after six C-USA contests a year ago.
Loving The Long Ball
East Carolina has hit 15 home runs in 29 contests, an average of 0.52 per tilt. A year ago, the Pirates hit just 16 homers in 63 matchups, or 0.25 a game. Already this league season, ECU hit three home runs after tallying four in the entire 2011 C-USA campaign.
Senior Suzanne Riggs leads the long ball parade with six, the most by a Pirate since Marina Gusman-Brown belted 13 in 2010. Classmate Priscilla Velasquez has also found her power stroke during her final season with the Pirates, hitting two home runs, both last week.
Haven't Done That In A While
Heading into the bottom of the seventh last Sunday at Tulsa, East Carolina held a 6-3 lead. The Golden Hurricane scored four times in the frame to win 7-6. East Carolina is 132-3 in its last 135 games when leading after six innings with two of those losses to Tulsa.
Prior to last Sunday, ECU dropped a 2-1 decision at UNC Wilmington on April 6, 2011, when heading into the final frame up 1-0, only to allow a pair of runs to the Seahawks in the bottom of the seventh. Before that loss to UNCW, the Pirates' last setback when ahead through six was March 31, 2007, in a home contest versus Tulsa. In that game, ECU also led 1-0 going into the seventh, but gave up a leadoff solo home run to Sara Dyer to tie the game at 1-1. The Golden Hurricane went on to win 3-1 in nine innings.
Second-Inning Troubles
During East Carolina's 13-4 setback to Tulsa in game two last Saturday, the Golden Hurricane scored 12 runs in the bottom of the second inning. Yesterday, however, UTEP did not push across any runs in the second. For the season, the Pirates have been outscored 31-12 during the second frame. Foes have combined to bat .355 in the second inning.
The 31 runs are the most ECU has given up in any inning this season, seven more than the 24 surrendered in the third.
Getting Better With Age
As a freshman in 2011, Jordan Lewis drove in five runs during the entire Conference USA season. Last weekend at Tulsa, the Fremont, Calif., native nearly matched that output with three RBI and added three more Saturday to surpass the mark.
She hast posted a .533 slugging percentage so far in C-USA action after finishing 2011 league play with a .318 mark.
Starting The Right Way
In the three games at Tulsa last weekend, sophomore Jill Jelnick batted leadoff in each contest and reached base to open every matchup. In the first tilt she drew a walk and was later forced out on a fielder's choice. In the other two games, the Aliso Viejo, Calif., product singled in her first at-bat and came around to score. Jelnick continued the trend Saturday, reaching with a walk and single and scoring both times.
This season, Jelnick has batted in the leadoff slot 16 times and has begun the first inning reaching base in eight of those contests. In those situations, she has scored six runs in the opening frame. Regardless of spot in the order, when leading off an inning this season Jelnick has reached base 42.9 percent of the time.
The Correct Substitute For A Run
Sophomore Abby Wynne entered as a pinch runner in the top of the fourth inning of the opener at Tulsa and scored on a Lewis single to tie the game at 1-1. Prior to Saturday against UTEP, the last two times Wynne had been used as a pinch runner, she had scored. During the second contest versus the Miners, Wynne was left stranded on third base.
A year ago, Wynne pinch ran eight times and only crossed home twice.
For The Good Of The Team
Last Sunday at Tulsa, sophomore Kristi Oshiro finished the contest with one hit in one official at bat as she put down three sacrifice bunts in her other three plate appearances. She became the first Pirate with three sacrifice hits in a contest since Charina Sumner laid down a trio of bunts versus N.C. State on April 15, 2009.
Oshiro put down a sacrifice bunt in both games Saturday, giving her five in the last three contests.
