March 14, 2011

The East Carolina baseball team is coming off a 4-1 week where they picked up wins against Campbell (3-2), High Point (5-4), Monmouth (4-3) and Rutgers (5-0). The Pirates' (11-4) lone loss was against Liberty, 2-0, in the Eighth Annual LeClair Classic Finale.

On the week, the ECU pitching staff registered its fourth shutout of the season, allowed 11 runs (eight earned) and lowered its team ERA to a Conference USA best 1.87. ECU has another tough week ahead playing five games in six days before they enter C-USA action March 25-27 when they play host to Memphis.

East Carolina Pirates (11-4)
National Ranking: Receiving Votes (NCBWA) as of Mar. 7, 2011
Current Streak: W-1

Last Week: 4-1
Mar. 8: Win at Campbell, 3-2
Mar. 9: Win vs. High Point, 5-4
*Mar. 11: Win vs. Monmouth, 4-3
*Mar. 12: Win vs. Rutgers, 5-0
*Mar. 13: Loss vs. Liberty, 2-0
* = 8th Annual Keith LeClair Classic

Upcoming Week
Away vs. Elon (Mar. 15)
Home vs. Buffalo (Mar. 16)
Home vs. Rutgers (Mar. 18-20)

Pirate Hitter of the Week
Trent Whitehead, Senior, OF
Whitehead helped the Pirates to a 4-1 week where he batted .381 (8-for-21) with three doubles and four RBI ... He recorded a pair of three-hit games against High Point and Monmouth, while also registering hits against Campbell and Rutgers ... In the Pirates 5-4 win over High Point he recorded three doubles and drove in three RBI ... Collected game-winning RBI against Monmouth on a RBI triple in the seventh inning ... In all, he led the Pirates in hits, RBI, total bases, slugging and tied Corey Thompson with the lead in doubles ... On the season he is batting .290 (18-for-62) with six doubles, eight runs scored and nine RBI.

Pirate Pitcher of the Week
Brad Mincey, Senior, RHP
Mincey made three appearances out of the bullpen this week working 9.0 innings where he did not allow a run, surrendered just one hit, struck out seven and walked two (one of those intentional) ... On the week he held opposing hitters to an impressive .038 average ... The right-hander picked up his second win of the season against High Point after tossing 2.2 innings (2 over minimum) of scoreless relief with a strikeout and an intentional walk ... He followed that up with an inning of relief against Monmouth in the LeClair Classic working a perfect eighth frame with two punch outs ... Against Liberty, he recorded his second longest outing of the season going 5.1 innings (3 over minimum) allowing a hit with four strikeouts and a walk ... On the season he owns an impressive 0.48 ERA (second-lowest on the team) posting a 2-0 record with 11 strikeouts to just three walks in 18.2 innings in eight appearances ... He has not allowed a run in his last 17.0 innings of relief work dating back to his relief outing at then No. 10 Virginia on Feb. 27.

PIRATE NOTES
Through 15 games, the Pirates pitching staff is putting up some impressive numbers ... Currently they own a 1.87 ERA, which ranks tops in Conference USA and is among the national leaders ... Over the weekend they tossed their fourth shutout of the season (5-0 vs. Rutgers) and seven pitchers with at least five innings of work with an ERA of 2.39 or lower ... ECU also leads the league in opposing batting average (.213), fewest hits allowed (105) and fewest earned runs allowed (28).

Corey Thompson continued his solid hitting last week batting .357 with three doubles, RBI and two runs scored ... On the season he is batting a team-best .404 (21-for-52) while also leading the squad with 10 RBI, 10 walks, a .519 slugging percentage, a .515 on-base percentage and is tied with Trent Whitehead with six doubles ... Heading into this week's action he ranks among the C-USA leaders in average (third), on-base percentage (third), doubles (t-sixth) and walks (t-seventh).

Freshman Jack Reinheimer had a productive week driving in a pair of game-winning RBI ... His RBI single in the bottom of the ninth against High Point propelled the Pirates 5-4, while his two-RBI single in the fourth against Rutgers proved to be the game-winner in a 5-0 win ... On the season he is batting .281 (9-fpr-32) with five RBI, six runs scored and has started 8 of 12 games in the infield ... He also has three game-winning RBI on the year.

Tim Younger batted a team-best .400 (4-for-10) with a RBI and four runs scored ... Also added three sacrifice bunts and ranks first in C-USA with seven total sac bunts ... He has started all 14 games played for the Pirates in the infield and is batting .243 (9-for-37) with three doubles, three RBI and scored nine runs ... Against Youngstown State (2/19) lifted the Pirates to a 1-0 win on a walk-off RBI single in the ninth.

Four different hurlers recorded wins during the Pirates 4-1 week ... Seth Maness (3-1) collected his third of the season and 31st of his career in the tournament opener against Monmouth ... The senior right-hander worked seven innings allowing three runs (all earned) on seven hits with eight punch outs in his third quality start of the season ... Mike Wright (3-0) also posted his third win of the season in ECU's 5-0 win over Rutgers ... He scattered six hits over seven scoreless innings tying his career-high with six strikeouts and did not issue a walk.

Seth Simmons recorded his third save of the season and 23rd of his career against Monmouth after working two-thirds of an inning with a punch out ... He picked up his first win of the year and ninth of his career against Campbell (3/8) tossing three innings of scoreless relief allowing one hit, one walk and fanning six ... Simmons entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and not outs retiring all three batters he faced striking out the side ... In all, he tossed 4.0 scoreless innings on the week with seven strikeouts, one walk and allowed two hits ... Currently he boasts a team-best 0.00 ERA surrendering just three hits in nine frames with 14 strikeouts and three walks ... Opponents are hitting just .107 against him.

Junior Kevin Brandt and redshirt-sophomore Shawn Armstrong each got midweek starts working at least five innings ... Brandt allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits with three strikeouts in 5.1 innings against High Point ... Armstrong struck out five in five innings giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits ... On the season Brandt (1-0) sports a 1.46 ERA in five appearances with eight punch outs, four walks, four runs (two earned) in 12.1 innings ... Armstrong (1-0) has 11 strikeouts in 12.1 innings with a 3.65 ERA in four appearances (two starts).

Head Coach Billy Godwin recorded his 467th career and 204th Pirate win against Rutgers on March 12 ... Currently he ranks third all-time in the win column and is nine wins away from passing former Pirate skipper Keith LeClair (212) for second place.