Feb. 27, 2011

East Carolina Game 16: Campbell
Date	Sunday, Feb. 27
Times	3:00 p.m. ET
Location	Greenville, N.C. (ECU Softball Stadium)
Tickets	Ticket Central
Game Notes	East Carolina | Campbell
Statistics	East Carolina | Campbell
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Pirate Softball Central	Gameday Central | Roster  Interactive Guide Conference USA Softball | NCAA Softball

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina ends its season-long 11-game homestand Sunday with a battle against Campbell (8-5) at approximately 3:00 p.m. Earlier this weekend, the Pirates defeated Towson 6-5, Fairfield 9-0 and Lehigh 8-0. ECU (11-4) will be looking to extend its winning streak to eight games and improve to 10-1 inside the new facility.

ECU Against Campbell
The Pirates own a 34-10 advantage against the Camels, with the teams meeting at least once a year from 1990-2002. The programs also played doubleheaders in 2005, 2006 and 2008 before facing each other in single games during the 2009 and 2010 campaigns.

A year ago, the programs met Feb. 19 at the Lipton Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., with East Carolina claiming a 7-2 victory. A four-run second inning was the difference for the Pirates as Charina Sumner drove in two with a double to left field. Cristen Aona and Kaui Tom also drove in runs for ECU. Toni Paisley earned the win, going all six innings and giving up just one hit, a triple, while fanning 10.

Dominate The State
The Pirates will be looking to continue their recent success against teams from North Carolina Sunday against Campbell as they have won the last 15 contests against in-state foes, outscoring them 97-12.

East Carolina defeated UNC Greensboro twice and Campbell once near the end of 2009, went 11-0 versus Campbell, N.C. Central, UNC Greensboro, N.C. State, UNC Wilmington and Elon last season and defeated UNC Wilmington 8-0 to open the ECU Softball Stadium Feb. 16.

Paisley’s Push For 1,000
Paisley enters Sunday’s game against Campbell with 997 career strikeouts. With three more whiffs, she will become the first player in East Carolina and Conference USA history to reach the 1,000-strikeout mark. Friday, Feb. 18 against St. John’s, Paisley became the program and Conference USA all-time strikeout leader with 949 whiffs, surpassing 2007 teammate and former coach Keli Harrell’s 948 career whiffs.

You Can’t Catch Us
This season, the Pirates are 9-0 when leading after four innings, 7-0 when ahead through five frames and 6-0 when leading after six innings.

Since the start of the 2009 campaign, ECU is 67-4 when ahead through four frames, 63-2 leading after five innings and 64-0 with a lead through six innings.

Not Many Runs
Of the Pirates’ 44 wins in 2010, a school-record 33 were shutouts, surpassing the 2007 and 1998 squads’ 20. East Carolina did not throw its first shutout until the 11th game of the season, meaning its foes were blanked 63.5 percent of the time the rest of the year. For the entire season, ECU threw a shutout in 53.2 percent of its games.

In 2011, the Pirates are ahead of last year’s overall shutout rate by the slimmest of margins, blanking opponents 53.3 percent of the time. But among their 11 wins this season, eight are shutouts, falling slightly behind last year’s shutout rate in wins at 72.7 percent.

Home Cooking Warming Up The Bats
During the first 10 games of ECU’s homestand, the Pirate offense has come to life. East Carolina is batting .356 as a team and has outscored its opponents 60-16 since returning home from the Red & Black Showcase. Additionally, the Pirates have posted a .498 slugging percentage and a .466 on-base percentage inside the ECU Softball Stadium.

Leading the way for East Carolina is junior Suzanne Riggs, who has 14 hits, 13 runs batted in and six scored during the homestand. Not far behind are freshman Kristi Oshiro and Jordan Lewis. Oshiro has pounded out 14 hits and scored 13 runs while Lewis has 13 hits, 10 runs scored and seven RBI.