# 19 East Carolina Pirates

Record: 16-8
RPI: 41
SOS: 37
Best Wins: 1/3 @ Rice (# 15); 2/3 @ Virginia (# 36); vs. SE Lousiana (# 65), vs. Maryland (# 79)
Bad Loss: vs. Elon (# 210)

The Seahawks look to get their first road win (0-4) at the start of an 8-game road swing against a tough opponent in ECU. It's been a few years since the Pirates have looked as strong as they are currently, so snagging a victory in Greenville will be both important and difficult.

While the Seahawks are currently one of the nation's top offenses, averaging 9.3 runs per game, ECU's strength has been their pitching in 2016. The Pirates' weekend starters all have ERA's under 2.50, and as a team their ERA sits at 3.39, ranked 43rd in the country.

Offensively, ECU's numbers are strong despite averaging "only" 5.8 runs per game, meaning it is only a matter of time before the run support increases for the Pirate pitching staff. As a team ECU is hitting .307, though they don't have a lot of power; only 1 hitter, Junior Eric Tyler, has hit more than 1 home run (4) this season.

I will be at ecu for the game

(03-28-2016 02:22 PM)tke75hawk Wrote:  I will be at ecu for the game

Did you get all your shots updated?

The Pirates were ranked 19th this week by D1Baseball.com. Thread title reflected accordingly. This will be our 2nd chance in a week's time to knock off a ranked team.

And per ECU's game notes, Junior lefty Jacob Wolfe will be getting the start:

Quote:Jacob Wolfe will get the start against UNC Wilmington ... Named AAC Pitcher-of-the-Week (2/29) after limiting No. 4 Virginia to just one run (unearned) on four hits in 6.0 innings securing ECU’s series win at UVA ... Owns a 2-2 record with a 1.91 ERA in six starts ... Fanned career-high seven batters vs. Longwood and Monmouth ... Has 13 career quality starts (4 in 2016) and seven career wins.

We'll be countering with Justin Crump (1-0, 2.03 ERA), making his 4th start of the season.

http://uncwsports.com/news/2016/3/29/bas...hawks.aspx


Eight-Game Road Stretch Begins Tonight For Diamond Hawks

WILMINGTON, North Carolina – UNCW kicks off an eight-game road stretch tonight with a 6:30 p.m. start at longtime rival East Carolina.

The Seahawks (15-6) carry a six-game winning streak into the game while the Pirates (16-8) have won five of their last seven outings following a series win against Jacksonville last weekend.

Sophomore Justin Crump (1-0, 2.03 ERA) will draw the start for the Seahawks while ECU turns to Jacob Wolfe (2-2, 1.91 ERA) who lasted 2.1 innings in his last start, an 8-6 setback to Jacksonville on Saturday.

UNCW continued its high-scoring ways in a rain-shortened conference series sweep of Elon with the Seahawks winning 10-4 and 12-3 at Brooks Field. The Seahawks enter the week ranked third nationally, averaging 9.3 runs per game.

The Seahawks return to conference play this weekend in Boston when they visit Northeastern for three games beginning on Friday with a 3 p.m. start.


5 THINGS TO KNOW

1. UNCW won the only game played between the two last season, taking a 4-2 decision at Brooks Field. The second game of the annual home-and-home series was canceled in Greenville due to inclement weather
2. Justin Crump has a 1.69 ERA in three starts this season against UNCG, Coastal Carolina and NC State
3. UNCW has scored 10 or more runs in 13 games this season
4. The Seahawks have hit 25 home runs in their first 21 games. In 2015, they hit 44 in 59 outings
5. ECU head coach Cliff Godwin was an assistant on UNCW's 2004 CAA Championship team

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Parker Lamm and Dwanya Williams-Sutton lead the ECU lineup with a .356 batting average and both have scored 12 runs … Eric Tyler has a team-leading four homers and 23 runs batted in … Reliever Joe Ingle has made 10 appearances and owns a 3-2 record with four saves while opponents are hitting .148 against him.

Evidently EZU is using a weekend guy who just pitched on Saturday against us. And their fans like to pretend it's not a big game when they face us. Funny stuff.

Crump has pitched well against high level offenses in UNCG (9.4 runs/game, # 2 in the country), Coastal, and NC State so he'll be up to the task. Should be a good game tonight.

While we're facing ECU, Charleston has a massive game @ # 2 South Carolina tonight at 7. The Gamecocks are 23-2 and # 1 in the RPI. Charleston, meanwhile, is 17-7 and # 4 in the RPI, though they aren't getting much love in the national polls. A win tonight would change that in a big way.

Elon is also hosting Wake Forest. Pretty big night for the league.

Evidently it costs $10 to watch the game off ECU's website. F that. Listening to the UNCW radio call and following along on live stats. Won't be able to listen beyond 7:30, however.

Linkous with a leadoff single. Here we go!

FC, K, and a pickoff. No score, bottom 1.

I'm on live stats. No way in hell in paying ecu $10.

No score through one after Crump k's a batter with a runner on 2nd.

(03-29-2016 05:53 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  I'm on live stats. No way in hell in paying ecu $10.

You can listen to the UNCW radio call off uncwsports.com.

ECU grabs a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd thanks to a hit batter, walk, single, and sac bunt. 2 outs in the inning.

We need to prove our offense exist consistently against good teams.

3-0 now.

(03-29-2016 06:16 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  We need to prove our offense exist consistently against good teams.

Just as importantly we need to perform in road games. IMO that's the biggest reason we haven't gotten any respect in the national polls all year. We did produce offensively against NC State, but of course that was at home. Away from home is where mental toughness is big.

(03-29-2016 06:19 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(03-29-2016 06:16 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  We need to prove our offense exist consistently against good teams.

Just as importantly we need to perform in road games. IMO that's the biggest reason we haven't gotten any respect in the national polls all year. We did produce offensively against NC State, but of course that was at home.

Agree. Still a lot of baseball left today, but gotta come back early not late here. ECU is too good this year to mess around.

Austin Easter warming up. Crump works out of it, but that was easily his roughest inning thus far this season.