Pirate Softball Hosts Eastern Illinois in Mid-Week Twinbill
March 10, 2014 | Softball
March 10, 2014
 vs.  | |
| East Carolina vs. Eastern Illinois March 11, 2014 | 2 p.m. (EST) Greenville, N.C. | |
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina softball team will host Eastern Illinois in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m., on Tuesday afternoon at the ECU Softball Stadium.
The Pirates (13-5, 2-1 C-USA) are coming off their first conference series of the season, where they took two of three games from UAB. ECU won Saturday's first game, 2-1, on a walk-off RBI single by Shelby Johnson in the bottom of the seventh inning, before claiming a 7-1 triumph over the Blazers in Sunday's series finale.
Members of the Ohio Valley Conference, the Panthers enter Tuesday's matchups with a 16-7 overall record and winners in seven of their last eight games. Pitcher Hanna Mennenga owns an 8-1 mark with a 1.71 ERA with three shutouts through her first nine starts, while Brooke Owens leads the offense hitting .400 with 26 hits and a team-high 15 runs scored.
Game Notes:
DIGGING IN
Winners in seven of its last eight and 11 of the last 13 games, East Carolina will face Eastern Illinois in its only mid-week, home, non-conference doubleheader of the 2014 season. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 2 p.m., at the ECU Softball Stadium.
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
ECU and EIU have met five times in each program's histories, with the Pirates having won three times. The two teams last met in 1998 at the Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C., where the Panthers escaped with a 3-1 victory. Eastern Illinois last played in Greenville in 1990, splitting a twin bill with East Carolina.
C-USA PITCHER-OF-THE-WEEK
Junior Sarah Christian was named the Conference USA Pitcher-of-the-Week after two complete-game wins and leading East Carolina to a series victory over UAB. The Greenville, N.C., native posted a 0.95 ERA in 14.2 innings, holding the Blazers to just two runs on eight hits and a .160 team batting average.
HOME RUN CHASE
Senior corner infielder Alex Fieldhouse and senior first baseman Jordan Lewis are tied for the team lead with four home runs each, and have combined for more than half of the team's 15 home runs so far this season. Lewis currently sits in a tie with Vanessa Moreno (2006-10) for the seventh most in program history with 18 home runs, while Fieldhouse's 17 big flies have her in a tie with Kaui Tom (2007-10) for eighth all-time.
THE SPEED DEMON
In addition to reaching base in 16-straight games, senior Shelby Johnson has been a nightmare on the basepaths for opposing teams and is tied for the Conference USA lead in stolen bases with 15. Johnson swiped a career-high three bags in the Pirates' 4-3, extra-inning affair in the second game of a doubleheader against Tennessee Tech on March 1, the most in a game by an ECU player since Jill Jelnick accomplished the feat with a trio on March 28, 2012 against UNC Wilmington. She has recorded two or more steals in five different games.
