ECU Slotted No. 11 In D1Baseball Preseason Poll

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina collected its second national ranking in advance of the 2023 campaign Tuesday morning as D1Baseball slotted the Pirates 11th in its Preseason Top 25 Poll.

Three-time defending American Athletic Conference regular season champion ECU has appeared in the last five D1Baseball preseason polls. The Pirates were tabbed No. 11 in 2019, No. 21 in 2020, No. 25 in 2021 and No. 12 in 2022.

East Carolina is scheduled to play five contests against squads on the list - three versus No. 12 North Carolina and a home and home set with No. 21 NC State.

The Pirates are just 31 days away from opening the 2023 season with a three-game home series (Feb. 17-19) against George Washington at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

2023 D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 Poll

LSU
Tennessee
Stanford
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
Wake Forest
Florida
Arkansas
Oklahoma State
Vanderbilt
East Carolina
North Carolina
Maryland
Virginia Tech
TCU
Louisville
UCLA
Southern Miss
Virginia
Alabama
NC State
Miami
South Carolina
Texas Tech
Oregon

About East Carolina

ECU captured its third-straight American Athletic Conference regular season championship in 2022, finishing the campaign with 46 victories - its most since a 47-victory campaign in 2019. East Carolina posted a 20-4 record in league play, outpacing second-place UCF by six games.
The Pirates hosted an NCAA Regional for the fourth-straight season, joining Stanford as the only team to do so.
ECU earned the No. 8 national seed, its highest since it was the No. 7 national seed in 2001 and hosted a regional in Wilson, N.C.
The Pirates finished at No. 8 in the final 2022 NCAA RPI ranking.
Ninth-year head coach Cliff Godwin was tabbed the AAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career.
East Carolina returns the American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and Third-Team All-American RHP Carter Spivey as well as freshman All-America selection and AAC Baseball Championship Most Outstanding Player outfielder Jacob Jenkins-Cowart and the 2022 squad's leader in batting average outfielder Lane Hoover.
Spivey was selected to the 2023 Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America Second Team on Dec. 19 and was named the 2023 Preseason AAC Pitcher of the Year.
Spivey and Jenkins-Cowart were selected unanimously to the 2023 All-AAC Preseason Team.
ECU welcomes back six All-AAC honorees to this year's squad: Lane Hoover (First Team), Carter Spivey (First Team), Cam Clonch (Second Team), Alec Makarewicz (Second Team), Garrett Saylor (Second Team) and Jacob Starling (Second Team).
The Pirates finished among the top 40 nationally in 12 statistical categories in 2022, ECU was third among NCAA Division I squads in both fielding percentage and sacrifice flies.
East Carolina is the only team in the nation to have won 40 games the last four seasons, host four-straight NCAA Regionals and play in three-straight NCAA Super Regionals.
ECU checked in at No. 22 on D1Baseball's recently-released Top 100 collegiate baseball programs.

Players Mentioned

Cam Clonch

Lane Hoover

Jacob Jenkins-Cowart

Alec Makarewicz

Garrett Saylor

Carter Spivey

Jacob Starling

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