Game Day Central: ECU vs. Memphis (American Baseball Championships)
May 24, 2016 | Baseball
| No. 2 East Carolina vs. No. 7 UCF (Game: 55) | |
| Date: | May 25 |
| Time: | 11 a.m. (ET) |
| Location | Clearwater, Fla. (Bright Houst Field) |
| Tickets & Parking | Buy Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage |  Radio: WNCT 1070 AM | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search WNCT -- Beach Boogie & Blues) |
| Internet Options | Live Stats |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | USF | American Athletic Conference |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | USF | The American | Bracket | Championship Central |
| 2016 Baseball Statistics | East Carolina | USF |
| ECU Baseball Central | Promotional Calendar | Roster | Fact Book | The American | NCAA Baseball | College Scoreboard |
| Official Social Media Sites | |
| East Carolina | The American | |
| East Carolina | ECUScoreboard (In-Game Updates) | The American | |
| Twitter Hashtags | #ECUPirates | #ECUBaseball | #AmericanRising |
| East Carolina | The American | |
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- No. 2 seed East Carolina (34-20-1) will face off against No. 6 seed Memphis (19-38) on Thursday, May 26 at 11 a.m. (ET) at Bright House Field.
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAME
? ECU and USF will meet for the fourth time this season and 23rd time overall on Wednesday ... The Pirates hold a 15-7 all-time record in the series, but the Bulls have won five of the last seven meetings dating back to 2005, which includes series wins in 2015 and 2016 ... The Pirates are coming off a road series sweep at UCF where they finished second in the regular season league rankings, while the Bulls were swept at home by UConn to close out the season.
? For the first time since Feb. 29th, the Pirates were not nationally-ranked on May 16... ECU had been ranked in the polls 11-straight weeks until it posted a 1-3 record (May 13-18) ... They first entered the polls after a road series win over No. 4 Virginia (Feb. 26-28) - the first over a Top 5 program since 2002.
PIRATE QUICK HITS (prior to tournament)
? Evan Kruczynski, who earned first-team all-conference honors in 2016, owns a 6-1 record (14-5 career) with a league second-best 1.95 ERA ... He also ranks among The American leaders in pickoffs (first), ERA (third), fewest runs allowed (third), fewest earned runs allowed (fourth), Ks looking (seventh), wins (t6th), fewest walks (ninth) and total strikeouts (ninth) ... Friday starter, who has faced off against some of the best hurlers in the country in All-Americans Connor Jones (UVA), Andrew Lantrip (HOU) and Anthony Kay/twice (UCONN), as well as National POWs Kyle Cedotal (SE Louisiana), Jon Duplantier (Rice) and Lantrip ... Named to the Golden Spikes Midseason Award and National College Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher-of-the-Year Watch Lists on April 20 ... Also named a semifinalist for the Gregg Olson Award on May 20 ... Tallied 12 quality starts (22 career) in 2016.
? Jimmy Boyd picked up the series clinching wins against Houston, Memphis and UCF in league action ... Out dueled NCBWA National POW Seth Romero working a career-high 8.2 innings and was one out shy of a CG SHO (two-out error) in a 5-1 win, where he was named AAC and CollegeSportsMadness POW ... Has worked into the seventh inning in seven of 13 starts (eighth inning twice) ... Struck out a season-high eight batters against Houston ... Recorded eight quality starts (UVA, Rice, JAX, HOU, UCONN, CIN, USF, UCF) ... Ranks among The American leaders in wins (t2nd), fewest runs allowed (t5th), ERA (sixth), opposing batting average (sixth) and innings pitched (eighth).
? Jacob Wolfe is 6-3 on the season with a 2.44 ERA in 15 starts ... Tossed first career complete game at UCONN (5/8) with a personal-best nine strikeouts ... Worked into the seventh inning in six times ... Two-time AAC Pitcher-of-the-Week (2/29, 5/9) ... Has 17 career quality starts (8 in 2016) and 11 career wins ... Ranks among The American leaders in starts (first), pickoffs (second), wins (t6th) and ERA (eighth).
? Dwanya Williams-Sutton was named first-team all-conference ... Led The American (all games) in batting average (.372), slugging (.601) and on-base percentage (.463) ... Tied for second in the league with four triples ... He is the first Pirate since Brian Cavanaugh to lead a conference in average when he batted .382 in 2005 (Conference USA) ... Two-time league honor roll selection (2/29, 5/9) ... Team leader in home runs with five (JAX, Elon, UCONN/twice, UCF) ... Has 20 extra-base hits on the season (11/2Bs, 5/3Bs, 5 HRs) ... Tallied six game-winning RBI on the season with four coming in The American.
? Travis Watkins earned second-team all-conference honors ... Team co-captain that is batting .315, which ranks sixth in The American ... Also ranks among league leaders in hits (fourth), on-base percentage (sixth) and doubles (t6th) ... Leads ECU in doubles (14), runs (36) and is second in RBI (31) and total bases (87) ... Has three home runs on the year ... Laced three doubles at Memphis (4/16), which hadn't been done since 2011 (Trent Whitehead) ... Picked up a pair of GW-RBI at UCF pushing his season total to five and career total to 13 ... At least one hit in 45 of 54 games ... Thrown out 17 would-be base stealers behind the plate ranking third in the AAC ... 2015 Johnny Bench Award semifinalist ... Four-time Bench Watch List candidate (2013-16).
? Turner Brown is batting .296 with three HRs, 31 RBI and 26 runs scored ... Stands eight in The American in on-base percentage ... Named to AAC Honor Roll (2/22) ... Delivered game-winning hit (walk-off) against SE Louisiana (3/4) with a two-RBI single in the ninth ... Belted home runs against Longwood, NC State and USF ... Registered second career game-winning RBI at UCONN (5/7) in ECU's 11-9 series clinching win ... Has tallied 13 multi-hit and six multi-RBI games.
? Parker Lamm is batting .293 on the season ... Tied for fourth in the league with nine sac bunts ... Named to AAC Honor Roll (4/18) after batting .538 with eight RBI at Memphis ... Recorded at least one hit in 37 of 50 games where he has an official at-bat, while reaching base in 41 contests.
? Eric Tyler is a two-time AAC Honor Roll selection (3/28 & 4/4) ... Batting .294 ... Leads the club with 33 RBI and is tied for second in home runs (4) and third in total bases (86) ... First career multi-HR game vs. JAX (3/26) setting an ECU & AAC single-game record with 8 RBI ... Personal-best four hits vs. UNCW (3/29).
? Joe Ingle is the overall league leader in saves (20) and tied for first in American action (seven) ... Named AAC Honor Roll (4/25) ... Career-high 4.0 IP with 7 Ks vs. Elon (4/5) in a win ... Fanned career-high nine vs. Maryland (3/6) ... Owns a 5-3 record with a 3.94 ERA in 29 games, the latter ranking second in The American ... Recorded 20 career saves, which is fourth all-time at ECU ... Two-time NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year Watch List (2015-16) ... 2015 NCBWA Freshman All-America selection ... Named to 2015 American Baseball Championships All-Tournament Team.
? Kirk Morgan ranks third on the team with a .299 average ... Laced a three-RBI double at UCF in game two of the series, which tied his career-high ... Tallied five multi-hit and three multi-RBI games this season.
? Davis Kirkpatrick has started three game (Monmouth, High Point, North Carolina) and while making nine relief appearances ... The right-hander has appeared in 12 games posting an 0-3 record with a 5.18 ERA ... Sat out 2015 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
? Garrett Brooks is batting .293 with 11 doubles ... The senior co-captain has started 40 of 54 games posting a .990 fielding percentage (104 putouts, 1 error) ... Scored 23 runs while driving in 18 ... Currently ranks 10th on ECU's all-time games played (212).
? Charlie Yorgen extended his consecutive start streak to 159 games (started in 2014) at USF (5/21) ... Tallied career-best four hits vs. the Aggies (2/23) ... Ranks second in The American with 14 sac bunts ... Stands sixth on ECU's all-time assists list with 462.
? Bryce Harman is tied for second on the team with four home runs (18 career) ... Tallied 12 extra base hits (7 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs) ... Driven in 23 runs and scored 25 ... Ranks second on ECU's all-time putouts list (1,286) trailing only Randy Rigsby (1,592 from 1995-98) ... Tallied eight multi-hit and four multi-RBI games ... Currently riding an eight-game hit streak ... Tallied four game-winning RBI in 2016 (10 in career).
? ECU's starting pitching boasts a 2.59 ERA ... Allowed 110 runs (86 earned) with 206 Ks to 77 BBs in 299.1 innings ...The bullpen has surrendered 108 runs (94 earned) with 188 Ks to 88 BBs in 183.0 innings for a 4.62 ERA ... Allowed 62 of 134 inherited runners to score (46.3 percent).
PROBABLE STARTERS
Thursday: RHP Jimmy Boyd (7-4, 2.32 ERA) vs. RHP Matt Ferguson (5-4, 3.99 ERA)
ECU'S HISTORY ON THE DIAMOND
? In its storied history, the Pirates won the 1961 NAIA National Championship, have claimed 24 conference titles (13 regular season/ 11 tournament), made 27 NCAA Regionals and advanced to three Super Regionals (2001, 2004 and 2009).
GODWIN AT A GLANCE
? Cliff Godwin, who was named the 16th head coach in school history on June 25, 2014, was a four-year letterwinner for the Pirates from 1998-2001 ... He has been a part of eight NCAA Regionals and two College World Series teams at the Division I level as an assistant coach and head coach ... Godwin guided the Pirates to a 40-win season, an American Athletic Conference Tournament title and a berth in the Coral Gables Regional -- its first NCAA Regional since 2012 -- in his first year at the helm ... Named 2015 AAC Coach-of-the-Year and was inducted into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame in January of 2016 ... Currently owns a 74-41-1 overall record (.642 percentage) as a head coach ... Third fastest coach to reach the 50-win plateau, which he did in 75 games (Earl Smith and Dr. Gary Overton did it in 65 games) ... As a player, he helped former ECU skipper Keith LeClair's teams post a 169-76 four-year ledger, including 46-plus wins in each of his final three seasons (16-16 in '99, 46-18 in '00 and 47-13 in '01) ... ECU won a pair of CAA Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Regionals every season from 1999 to 2001 ... The Pirates were the top seed in their regional all three years, including a No. 7 national seed in 2001 where they advanced to the Super Regional round before being eliminated by Tennessee.
