East Carolina University
Elon
No. 19 ECU Travels To UNCW Wednesday
March 11, 2020 | Baseball
| Game: 17 at UNCW | |
| Date | March 11, 2020 |
| Time | 6 p.m.(EDT) |
| Location | Wilmington, N.C. (Brooks Field) |
| Tickets & Parking | Buy Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage | Radio: 94.3 FM The Game Watch Live (FloSports - subscription required) TuneIn Radio: Online (Learfield/IMG College) |
| Internet Options | Live Stats: Wednesday |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | UNCW |
| Game Notes | East Carolina | UNCW |
| 2020 Statistics | East Carolina | UNCW |
| Baseball Central | Roster | Schedule/Results | NCAA Baseball | College Scoreboard |
| Social Media | ECUBaseball | The American |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – No. 19 East Carolina travels to UNCW for a midweek matchup Wednesday, March 11 at Brooks Field. First pitch is scheduled fo 6 p.m. (EDT).
MUSTACHE MARCH IS IN FULL SWING
• Annually, for the past 17 seasons, East Carolina hosts the "Keith LeClair Classic" a tournament put together to bring awareness to ALS through the Jim "Catfish" Hunter chapter, which is located in Raleigh, N.C.
• The chapter finds the tournament as a way to continue awareness and fundraising in Coach LeClair's honor. The goal is to use the Keith LeClair Classic as a starting point for our own fundraiser to help Strikeout ALS.
• For the fifth consecutive year, the ECU baseball team will be growing mustaches to raise money and awareness for ALS research. The Pirates will be teaming up with the Memphis and Michigan baseball programs as well as CoopStrong. Erik Bakich (Michigan Head Coach) and Cliff Godwin (ECU Head Coach) were teammates under Keith LeClair.
• CoopStrong is a non-profit organization formed to honor the memory of Nelson Cooper, a beloved husband, father, professor, and friend who passed away from ALS in May 2017. He has a special place in the ECU Baseball program being a professor to numerous of our players in his tenure as well as being close friends with Hall of Fame Head Coach Keith LeClair. CoopStrong keeps the memory and legacy of Dr. Nelson Cooper alive through scholarships awarded to Recreation Sciences students at East Carolina University.
• Last year, the Pirates along with the Tigers and Wolverines raised $10,836 for ALS research.
• In 2018, the ECU and Memphis baseball programs participated in "Mustache March" raising nearly $11,000 with donations going towards funding, supporting families and researching through local chapters.
• The past two seasons, ECU Dowdy Student Stores has donated $10,500 from t-shirt sales during the year and has pushed ECU's four-year total (including '19) to $43,492 in donations.
• Pirate fans wishing to donate can do so by clicking here.
THINGS TO KNOW
• ECU, who opened its 86th season of intercollegiate baseball on Feb. 14 against William & Mary, won the 1961 NAIA National Championship, have claimed 26 conference titles (14 regular season/12 tournament), made 30 NCAA Regionals and advanced to five Super Regionals (2001, 2004, 2009, 2016 and 2019).
• The Pirates and Seahawks have met 140 times dating back to their playing days in the Colonial Athletic Conferenc with ECU holding an 80-60 all-time lead in the series ... ECU has won the last two meetings (season sweep in 2019) and UNCW last beat the Pirates in 2018 during the Greenville Regional at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
2020 TEAM QUICK HITS (prior to midweek games)
• ECU enters the week with a 12-3 record and has won five-straight games (eight of its last 10) ... During its five-game win streak, the Pirates have outscored their opponents 57-11.
• The Pirates weekend rotation of Burleson, Smith and Kuchmaner own an 8-2 seasonal record and a combined 46-10 career record (82.1 win pct) in 74 starts.
• After going 4-0 last week, the Pirates are ranked in just two of the six major polls and are receiving votes in another ... Including preseason, the Pirates have been ranked or received votes in at least one national poll for 41-straight weeks (began in 2018 preseason).
• ECU leads the nation in sac bunts (20), while standing second in fielding percentage (.991), 16th in batting average (.314) and 20th in hits (161).
• In their weekend sweep at Charlotte, the Pirates scored the 49ers 33-10 and tallied 43 hits (23 of them coming with two strikes).
• The pitching staff has fanned 153 batters in 15 contests (10.2 kpg) with a season-high 17 in the series finale against the Tribe - the most since 17 vs. UCF on March 22, 2019 ... ECU has fanned at least nine batters in a game 11 times.
• Offensively, the Pirates have outscored their opponents 108-45 and have tallied 161 hits (10.7 hpg).
• ECU's pitching staff sports a 2.91 ERA after 15 games ... The starters own a 2.74 ERA allowing 19 runs (all earned) with 58 strikeouts to 19 walks ... The bullpen has surrendered 26 runs (25 earned) with 95 punch outs and 34 walks in 73.2 innings for a 3.05 ERA ... They have allowed 14 of 48 inherited runners to score on the year (29.2 pct).
• ECU has six two-way players on its roster this year with five already experiencing action ... Dubbed #2WayU by the head coach Cliff Godwin, the six players are Zach Agnos, Skylar Brooks, Alec Burleson, Ryder Giles, Connor Norby and Carson Whisenhunt.
• Giles became the first player in program history to make two relief appearances in the same game (2/16/20 vs. William & Mary) ... He entered in the seventh and got ECU out of a bases loaded jam with consecutive strikeouts ... Then exited in the eighth inning with runners on in favor of Agnos returning to shortstop, but later returned to strike out a Thomas Solomon (second time) in the eighth with the bases loaded to escape the threat.
• The Pirates' home schedule consists of 34 games including the 17th-Annual Keith LeClair Classic ... This year's Keith LeClair Classic, which was won by Ole Miss, also welcomed in High Point and Indiana ... Since 2004, ECU owns a 37-14 record in the classic and has claimed nine titles ... The Pirates finished 1-2 for just the third in the history of the Classic (2012, 2018).
• The 2020 campaign features 17 games (10/home, 6/away, 1/neutral) against nine NCAA regional teams in 2019, 37 against squads with 30-plus wins (20 with 35-plus, four with 40 or more wins) and 10 contests versus six clubs that finished ranked or receiving votes in the final national polls.
• Sixth-year head coach Cliff Godwin (213 wins) moved into third place on ECU's all-time wins list (3/8) passing his college coach and ECU Hall of Famer Keith LeClair ... He is the only ECU skipper to take the Pirates to a pair of Super Regional appearances (2016, 2019).
INDIVIDUAL QUICK HITS (prior to midweek games)
• Alec Burleson, who was named to five All-America teams in 2019, has earned inclusion on four teams heading into his junior campaign ... Named preseason AAC Player-of-the-Year accolades by leagues head coaches, Baseball America and D1Baseball ... Named to initial Golden Spikes Award and Stopper-of-the-Year Watch List ... Owns an 13-5 (72.2 win pct.) career record with nine saves in 47 appearances (21 starts) ... Can also play multiple positions (1B, RF, LF and DH) ... Sports a .342 career batting average with 11 home runs and 90 RBI ... Named AAC Player-of-the-Week (3/9/20) and to the AAC Honor Roll (2/24/20).
• Tyler Smith has allowed four runs over 18.1 innings with 19 punch outs to 10 walks ... Owns an 18-3 career record (.857 win pct.) with one save and 128 strikeouts in 196.2 innings (61 games/30 starts) ... Tallied six career quality starts.
• Jake Kuchmaner owns a 4-0 record in four starts ... Has allowed just one run on the season (15.0 innings) with 13 strikeouts and five walks ... Sports a 15-2 career record (.882 win pct) with a 3.03 ERA ... Named AAC Preseason Pitcher-of-the-Year by the leagues head coaches ... Unanimous Preseason All-Conference selection ... Tossed 30th perfect game in NCAA D1 history at Maryland on March 17, 2019 ... Earned First-Team All-AAC honors as a sophomore ... Swept league and national honors in consecutive weeks (3/11/19 & 3/18/19) ... Registered four career quality starts.
• Bryson Worrell was named to AAC Honor Roll (2/24/20) after leading the team in eight offensive categories including hitting at a .583 (7-for-12) clip with a home run, 3 doubles, 4 RBI and reached base 11 times ... Enter this week's action batting .365 with five home runs, 14 RBI and 12 runs scored ... Tallied six multi-hit and four multi-RBI games in 2020.
• Thomas Francisco named AAC Player-of-the-Week (see page 7) to open the 2020 season ... Currently he leads the team in average (.423) and walks (six) ... A year ago, he was one of 11 players to appear in 50 or more games (56) … Tallied four multi-hit and two multi-RBI games in 2020 ... Expected to miss a couple weeks due to a knee injury.
• Freshman Zach Agnos has started all 15 games at third base this season ... Currently hitting at a .268 clip with eight RBI ... On the mound he has worked 1.2 scoreless frames in a pair of appearances.
• Lane Hoover, who has started all 15 games (13/RF, 2/LF), is batting .345 (20-for-58) with a home run, 10 RBI and has scored a team second-best 14 runs ... In 2019, he was one of 11 players to appear in 50 or more games (54) during his true freshman season ... Recorded 14 two-out RBI in his career (6 in 2020).
• Cam Colmore tied his career-high with four shutout innings at Elon (2/25/20) ... Has allowed one hit over his last six innings pitched (retired all 12 batters faced at Elon) ... Tallied four career wins (1-0 in 2020).
• Freshman C.J. Mayhue is third on the team in strikeouts (18) and has allowed just one run (unearned) on eight hits in 13.0 innings (seven games) ... Earned his first career win against Georgia Southern (2/23/20) ... Struck out a career-high six batters in a career-best 3.1 innings against No. 13 Ole Miss in relief.
• Ryder Giles is tied for second on the team with two game-winning RBI (five for his career) ... Started 13 games at shortstop where he is batting .256 (10-for-39) with two doubles, eight RBI and scored six runs ... On the mound he has appeared in two games allowing two runs (both earned) on three hits with four strikeouts in 2.1 innings ... He has inherited nine runners without allowing a run.
• Christian Jayne has been on fire since stepping into a full-time role in left field (March 1st) ... In his last five games he is batting .333 (7-for-21) with four RBI, four walks, nine runs scored and five stolen bases.
• Seth Caddell has started 14 games played behind the plate ... Tallied second career game-winning RBI in 2020 season opener with a walk-off single in the 11th inning vs. William & Mary (other vs. Radford/2019) ... Currently batting .300 (15-for-50) with a home run, one triple, four doubles, nine RBI and has scored 11 runs ... He has eight career home runs and has driven in 35 in 86 games (55 starts).
PROBABLE STARTERS (2020 stats)
Wednesday: RHP Trystan Kimmel (0-0, 4.70 ERA) vs. RHP Brody Lawson (0-1, 7.20 ERA)
GODWIN AT A GLANCE (prior to midweek games)
• 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 11 NCAA Regional and two College World Series teams at the Division I level as an assistant coach and head coach … During his six years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to four NCAA Regional berths (2018 and 2019 Greenville Regional host), two Super Regional appearances, the 2019 American Athletic Conference Regular season title, a pair of AAC Tournament crowns and a 213-112-1 (.655) overall record … Ten players have earned All-America status, while 10 were NCAA All-Regional selections, 16 were named all-conference (15 first-teamers), while 13 were drafted by Major League Baseball teams … A two-time AAC Coach-of-the-Year selection (2015, 2019), Godwin was inducted into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame in January of 2016 … In 2018, he completed a summer stint on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team staff that posted a 12-3 record that included series wins over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba … 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 (46-16 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.
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