Feb. 28, 2011

The East Carolina baseball team was able to salvage a win against No. 10 Virginia earning a 4-3 victory in the series finally. On the season the Pirates own a 4-2 record, its fourth winning record through six games since the 2004. Despite surrendering 17 runs (six earned) on the weekend, ECU's hurlers boast a Conference USA best 1.56 team ERA.

East Carolina Pirates (4-2)
National Ranking: Receiving Votes (Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA) as of Feb. 21, 2011

Current Streak: W-1

Last Week: 1-2
Feb. 25 - Loss at No. 10 Virginia, 10-1
Feb. 26 - Loss at No. 10 Virginia, 4-3
Feb. 27 - Win at No. 10 Virginia, 4-3

Upcoming Week
Home vs. Campbell (Mar. 1)
Home vs. Pepperdine (Mar. 4-6)

Pirate Hitter of the Week
Corey Thompson, Junior, INF
For the second-straight week Thompson led the Pirates in batting with a .333 (4-for-12) average ... He drove in a pair of runs and scored one ...Currently he owns a four game hitting streak and has recorded at least one hit in 5 of 6 games this season ... He recorded his 31st career multi-hit game with his 2-for-4 performance at the plate in Sunday's 4-3 win over No. 10 Virginia ... Thompson swiped his first base of the season (second career) Sunday ... Extended current streak to 13-straight games (dating back to May 18, 2010) where he has reached base safely ... Thompson owns a career .381 career batting average, which ranks in the Top-5 among C-USA active players.

Pirate Pitcher of the Week
Mike Wright, Junior, RHP
Wright picked up his second win of the season topping 10th-ranked Virginia 4-3 on Sunday ... The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before surrendering a base hit to the second batter of the frame ... In all he allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with four punch outs in a career-best seven innings of work ... Faced the minimum during the first, second and fourth frames and four hitters the third and fifth innings ... Did not allow an earned run until the seventh inning ... In all he faced 27 batters holding UVa to a composite .200 average ... On the season, Wright is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in 12.0 innings and has fanned five batters.

PIRATE NOTES
Despite losing 2 of 3 games at No. 10 Virginia, ECU's pitching staff owns a 1.56 ERA, which leads Conference USA by almost a full run (Tulane - 2.32 ERA) ... Heading into the weekend series with the Cavaliers, ECU posted consecutive shutouts for the first time since 2006 and had their streak snapped at 20.2 innings when UVA scored in the third frame on Friday afternoon ... All three weekend starters have an ERA of 3.48 or better (Wright/0.75, Woods/0.84 and Maness/3.48) ... The Pirate hurlers have allowed just nine earned runs through six games.

Junior INF Mike Ussery and true freshman Ben Fultz recorded their first starts for the Pirates in game three against No. 10 Virginia ... Ussery laced a bases clearing double in his first at-bat in a Pirate uniform giving ECU an early 3-0 lead on Sunday against the Cavaliers ... Fultz was 1-for-3 in the series finale with a run scored and a sac bunt and extended his hit streak to three games ... Redshirt freshman Tanner Merritt made his collegiate debut on Friday working a scoreless inning of relief where he allowed one hit.

Senior Trent Whitehead picked up four hits on the weekend and extended his current hit streak to four games ... The Washington, N.C. native collected hits in his first at-bat in all three games ... Currently he is batting .304 (7-for-23) with five RBI, five runs and three doubles.

Seth Maness' four-game win streak as a starter was snapped in the series opener against UVa ... Maness allowed nine runs (three earned) with three strikeouts and no walks ... He has allowed just one walk in 30.1 innings over the last five games while striking out 26 ... Currently he owns a career 29-9 record with 264 strikeouts, which ranks sixth all-time at ECU.

Senior Zach Woods suffered his first loss of the season on Saturday after working 5.2 innings where he allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits with three strikeouts and one walk ... Over his last three starts (dating back to 2010 C-USA Championships) he has fanned 17, walked four and allowed four runs in 15.0 innings ... Currently he sports a 0.84 ERA with nine punch outs and two walks in 10.2 innings pitched.

Seth Simmons recorded his first save of the season in the Pirates win Sunday ... The Lewisville, N.C. native now has 21 career saves, two shy of tying the record held by Cory Scotts (1999-00) ... On the week he made two relief appearances where he allowed two hits with one walk and three punch outs ... This season he boasts a 0.00 ERA in three appearances with five strikeouts and one walk.

Head Coach Billy Godwin recorded his 460th career and 197th Pirate win on Sunday against No. 10 Virginia ... He ranks third all-time on ECU's wins list and is three away from becoming the third Pirate skipper to win 200 career games (Gary Overton/427 and Keith LeClair/212) ... The win Sunday was his 12th career against a Top-10 program and 28th career against a Top-30 squad.