East Carolina University
Houston
ECU Hosts Houston In Final AAC Series
May 19, 2022 | Baseball
| Games: 54-56 | |
| Dates: | May 19-21, 2022 |
| Time: | 6:30 p.m. \\\ 6:30 p.m. \\\ 1 p.m. (ET) |
| Location: | Greenville, N.C. | Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium |
| Game Program: | Baseball Gameday #7 |
| Live Game Coverage: | Radio: 94.3 FM The Game ESPN+ (Thursday | Friday | Saturday) Varsity Network: Online (LEARFIELD) |
| Live Stats: | All Weekend |
| Official Web Sites | East Carolina | Houston |
| Game Notes | East Carolina | Houston | American |
| 2022 Statistics | East Carolina | Houston |
| Baseball Central | Roster | Schedule/Results | NCAA Baseball | College Scoreboard | Weekly Rankings | National Stat Leaders |
| Social Media | ECUBaseball | The American |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – No. 21 East Carolina (35-18, 17-4 AAC) closes out the regular season playing host to Houston (34-19, 13-8 AAC) in the final American Athletic Conference series for both teams starting Thursday, May 19. First pitch from Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m. (ET) and will be streamed on ESPN+.
The Pirates, who have made 31 NCAA Regional appearances, claimed their third-straight American regular season title on May 15 with a 6-2 series sweeping win over South Florida. ECU hosted the Greenville Regional (sixth in program history) for the third consecutive year in 2021 after earning a No. 13 National seed and advanced to the Vanderbilt Super Regional. ECU finished ranked in all six national polls (Collegiate Baseball/No. 12, D1Baseball/No. 12, Perfect Game/No. 12, Baseball America/No. 13, NCBWA/No. 13 and USA Today/No. 13) in 2021 after posting a 44-17 overall record.
ECU returns 24 players including Freshman All-America selections C.J. Mayhue (2020), Zach Agnos (2021) and Josh Moylan (2021) along with AAC All-Conference performers Jake Kuchmaner (2019) and Bryson Worrell (2021). In all, the roster consists of 13 freshmen, 19 sophomores, five juniors and five seniors.
The 2021-22 recruiting class consists of three outfielders (Carter Cunningham, Jacob Jenkins-Cowart and Luke Nowak), one catcher (Ryan McCrystal) and nine pitchers (Merritt Beeker, Charlie Hodges, Jake Hunter, Jordan Little, Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman, Erik Ritchie, Ben Terwilliger, Jaden Winter and Trey Yesavage).
INDIVIDUAL QUICK HITS
- C.J. Mayhue was tabbed as a preseason All-American (third-team) by NCBWA ... Prior to the season opener, he earned inclusion on the NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year Watch List for the second consecutive year ... Named AAC Pitcher-of-the-Week and one of Collegiate Baseball's National Player's-of-the-Week (May 9) after tossing nine no-hit innings at Memphis (5/6) where he struck out nine, walked one and faced one over the minimum (28 batters) ... Has appeared in 67 career games (60 relief) posting an 8-2 record with nine saves ... Owns a 2.58 ERA and has struck out 153 batters while walking 40 over 118.2 innings ... Made first collegiate start vs. No. 22 NC State (3/29) allowing one run on two with four strikeouts in three innings ... Followed that with a two-inning scoreless start vs. No. 29 ODU (4/6) and vs. UNCW (4/19).
- Carter Spivey tossed a career-high 7.1 innings with seven punch outs at Tulane (4/23) earning AAC Pitcher-of-the-Week honors ... Previous high was 4.2 innings in relief against No. 22 NC State (3/29) ... Also worked 4.1 scoreless frames vs. No. 26 North Carolina (2/27) with a career-high seven strikeouts ... In 27 outings, which included a start at Campbell, he is 6-0 with four saves ... Currently he sports a 2.47 ERA with 60 strikeouts to 15 walks in 58.1 total frames ... Named to NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year Watch List (4/27).
- Garrett Saylor was named one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players-of-the-Week (March 14) after appearing in four games during the Pirates 3-2 week, which included a series win over Saint Mary's ... Also named to AAC Honor Roll (March 14) ... In 30 outings (two starts) he is 4-3 with two saves, 83 strikeouts and 20 walks in 61.1 innings ... Stands fifth nationally in appearances.
- Lane Hoover leads the team with a .348 batting average ... Tallied at least one hit in 36 of last 43 games ... At ECU, he has started 145 of 164 games posting a .320 batting average with a home run, 21 doubles, four triples and 66 RBI ... Tallied five career game-winning RBI (two in 2022) ... Ranks first in AAC in toughest to strikeout (once every 13.1 ABs) ... Named to AAC Honor Roll (April 4).
- Alec Makarewicz was named to AAC Honor Roll (March 7) ... Tied for second on the team in home runs (nine) and in RBI (39) ... Hit first grand slam of his career on April 16 in ECU's eight-run fifth inning at UCF ... Belted a pair of home runs in series opener at Cincinnati (April 1) - one each from the right and left side of the plate ... Tied career-high with four RBI at Duke (March 1) and at UCF (April 16).
- Jacob Jenkins-Cowart leads the team in RBI (41), while standing second in batting average (.333) and is tied for second in home runs (nine) ... Tallied career-high four hits at Memphis (5/8) ... Registered first career multi-HR game at Tulane (4/23) ... Tied for second on the club with 11 multi-RBI contests and is third 19 multi-hit games ... Named to AAC Honor Roll (April 11) ... Has five game-winning RBI (Saint Mary's/March 11, Saint Mary's/March 13, Wichita State/April 8, Duke/May 10, Campbell/May 17).
- Josh Moylan hit a pair of home runs and drove in four in ECU's 4-1 week (3/22-27) and now has five on the year ... Drew seven free passes during the Pirates 4-0 week (3/1-6) ... He tallied four walks at Duke (3/1) ... Tallied career-high four hits at Elon (4/12) ... Has appeared in 104 career games (102 starts) and owns .272 career batting average with 11 home runs, three triples, 17 doubles and 56 RBI.
- Zach Agnos co-leader with five game-winning RBI (two in LeClair Classic), while leasing with 22 multi-hit games ... Reegistered a career-high four RBI at Memphis (5/8) ... In his time at ECU, he has started all 131 games played where he is batting .279 with 11 home runs, 29 doubles and 82 RBI ... Has appeared in 13 games on the mound (all relief) posting a 2-0 record with one save.
- Ryder Giles has started 148 of 161 games played at shortstop before moving to the Friday night starters role ... Earned his sixth career save vs. Maryland ... Has started 10 career games (one in 2019, nine in 2022) ... Two-time AAC Honor Roll selection (March 28 & April 11) ... Also used as a defensive replacement late in games with Agnos is on the mound.
- Bryson Worrell named AAC Player-of-the-Week (April 18) ... Started all 53 games in center field batting .295 with 11 home runs and 39 RBI ... Belted a pair of home runs against Cincinnati (May 1) - one each from each side of the plate ... Has started 154 of 209 games hitting at a .283 clip with 31 home runs 115 RBI ... Has swiped 22 of 29 bases and owns a .981 career fielding percentage.
- Jake Kuchmaner has appeated in 10 games (nine starts), where he owns an 4-2 record with a 3.27 ERA where he has allowed 19 runs (15 earned) on 45 hits in 41.1 innings ... Registered his second quality start of the season against Saint Mary's (3/11) and has eight for his career ... As a Pirate, he is 21-8 with a 3.82 career ERA over 57 appearances (46 starts - sixth all-time at ECU) ... The lefty has worked 226.1 innings with 186 strikeouts to 61 walks ... Named to AAC Honor Roll on April 18 after earning the series clinching win at UCF ... A First-Team All-AAC selection in 2019, he tossed the 31st perfect game in NCAA DI history at Maryland on March 17 ... Named Senior CLASS Award Finalist (May 5) and CoSIDA First-Team All-District 3 (May 12).
- Jake Hunter made his collegiate debut against Bryant (2/20) as the Sunday starter ... In 16 outings (10 starts), he sports an 1-2 record with a 4.31 ERA ... Had best career outing vs. South Florida (5/15) tossing 5.1 perfect innings until allowing a base runner (hit by pitch) ... Struck out career-best seven batters against the Bulls ... The right-hander combined on a 5-0 shutout against North Carolina (2/27) tossing 3.1 scoreless frames with three punch outs ... Became the first true freshman to start a game opening weekend since Trey Benton (2017) at Ole Miss.
PROBABLE STARTERS (2022 stats)
Thursday: RH Jaycob Deese (5-2, 4.52 ERA) vs. LH C.J. Mayhue (4-1, 2.73 ERA)
Friday: TBA vs. TBA
Saturday: TBA vs. TBA
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 12 NCAA Regional and two College World Series teams at the Division I level as an assistant coach and head coach … During his eight years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to five NCAA Regional berths (2018, 2019 and 2021 Greenville Regional host), three Super Regional appearances, three American Athletic Conference Regular season and a pair of AAC Tournament crowns while posting a 293-148-1 (.664) overall record … Sixteen players have earned All-America status, while 15 were NCAA All-Regional selections, 23 were named all-conference (18 first-teamers) and 14 were drafted by Major League Baseball teams … A three-time AAC Coach-of-the-Year selection (2015, 2019, 2021), 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.
