Gameday: Pirates Visit Longwood For Wednesday Doubleheader

Games 23-24: at Longwood (DH)
Schedule	March 13: at Longwood \\\ 3:30 p.m. \\\ Live Stats March 13: at Longwood \\\ 6:00 p.m. \\\ Live Stats
Venue	Lancer Field (300)
Game Notes	ECU \| Longwood
Social Media	@ECUSoftball (Twitter) \\\ Instagram \\\ Facebook

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The ECU softball team will spend the latter half of this week in Virginia, traveling to Longwood for a Wednesday doubleheader before moving north to Fairfax for the George Mason Invitational.

The Pirates most recently won two of five games at the FAU/FIU Parent's Weekend Invitational, defeating Long Island and Florida Atlantic while falling to Florida A&M, Florida International and (RV) Notre Dame.

Collectively, ECU is batting .300 with five players hitting .310 or better. Tyler King paces the unit with a .397 batting average, 31 hits and 10 stolen bases. Ashleigh Inae is batting .364 with a team-high 22 runs scored. The Pirates also check in with 29 doubles, four triples and 14 home runs with Tate McClellan and Rachel McCollum sporting six and four long balls respectively.

In the circle, Erin Poepping is 10-5 with a 1.94 earned run average and 71 strikeouts against 23 walks. She has also tossed 10 complete games in 17 appearances.

About Longwood
Longwood is 11-7 overall after dropping two run-rule decisions to then No. 9 Texas on March 6. The Lancers are hitting .281 as a team with 20 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. Karleigh Donovan paces the squad with a .340 batting average while Kaylynn Batten has driven in a team-high 15 runs. In the circle, Longwood sports a 2.66 team ERA and uses two pitchers mainly. Sydney Gay is 6-4 with a 2.33 ERA and 34 strikeouts against 37 walks in 51 innings of work. Sydney Backstrom is 5-3 with a 3.08 ERA and 39 strikeouts against 19 walks in 50 innings. Teams are hitting just .231 off the Lancer pitching staff. Kathy Riley is in her 22nd season in charge of the Lancer softball program. She was a two-sport standout student-athlete at ECU and was selected the 1981 Broderick Cup National Softball Player of the Year, leading the Pirates to a No. 1 national ranking while garnering First-Team All-America honors.

Quality Wins
The Pirates own four wins over teams ranked in the top 100 of the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index last year (No. 61 USC Upstate/No. 86 Towson/No. 81 FAU/No. 100 Saint Francis). During 2018, ECU collected 13 wins over teams ranked in the top 100 of the RPI. The Pirates defeated No. 24 JMU (twice), No. 33 Wichita State, No. 40 Houston, No. 46 USF (twice), No. 50 Ohio, No. 57 Longwood, No. 58 FIU, No. 82 NC State, No. 83 Memphis and No. 86 Towson (twice). ECU was also the only team in the American Athletic Conference to hand regular season champion USF a series loss in league play, winning two of three from the Bulls in Greenville.

ECU At A Glance
Record - 13-9 (.591) // AAC Record (Standing) - 0-0 (N/A) // Last 5 Games - 2-3 (.400) // Last 10 Games - 4-6 (.400) // Last 15 Games - 7-8 (.467) // ECU will play the 188th and 189th games of the Courtney Oliver era when it takes on Longwood Wednesday. // The Pirates' all-time record stands at 1,422-852-5 in its 34th season of competition.

Up Next
ECU will take part in its final non-conference round robin event of the season March 15-17, facing off against Sacred Heart, Cornell and host George Mason at the Mason Invitational in Fairfax, Va.

Gameday: Pirates Visit Longwood For Wednesday Doubleheader

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Players Mentioned

Ashleigh Inae

Tyler King

Tate McClellan

Rachel McCollum

Erin Poepping

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