March 6, 2011

East Carolina Game 21: Northern Colorado
Date	Sunday, March 6
Time	11:00 a.m. ET
Location	Tempe, Ariz. (Alberta B. Farrington Stadium)
Game Notes	East Carolina
Statistics	East Carolina | Northern Colorado
Internet Coverage	Gametracker | Live Chat |  Weekend Preview
Mobile Connect	Live Chat for Mobile Devices
Pirate Softball Central	Gameday Central | Roster  Interactive Guide Conference USA Softball | NCAA Softball

TEMPE, Ariz. - East Carolina (15-5) completes action at this weekend’s Wilson/DeMarini Invitational with an 11:00 a.m. contest against Northern Colorado (1-12). It will be the first meeting between the two programs.

About The Bears
Northern Colorado is off to a 1-12 start this year after posting a 19-33 record in 2010. The Bears are led on offense by senior Kelli Henderson’s .353 batting average, 12 hits and seven runs scored. Junior catcher Erin Wilkinson has a squad second-best .323 average and tops the team with nine runs batted in.

Anchoring the pitching staff is senior Jamie Juelfs, who has a 7.66 earned run average and 0-5 record. Henderson owns the team’s lone win and is 1-6 with a 12.48 ERA.

ECU In First-Time Meetings
Sunday’s game completes a weekend of firsts for the Pirates as they had never faced any of their five opponents. Since 2006, East Carolina has gone 21-13 when facing a team for the first time. So far this season, East Carolina is 4-2 in such matchups. Friday, the Pirates beat New Mexico State 8-5 but fell to No. 9 Arizona State 11-0. Yesterday, ECU topped Creighton 2-0 and Northern Iowa 4-1. On the opening day of the season, East Carolina downed Lipscomb 1-0 and lost to Illinois State 8-0.

A year ago, ECU went 4-5 in initial meetings. The Pirates defeated Cal State Fullerton 2-0 and UC Davis 4-0 at the Cal Round Robin in Berkeley, Calif., Seattle 9-0 at the Bank of Hawai’i Invitational Tournament in Honolulu and Morehead State 6-3 at the Pirate Classic. On the other hand, ECU fell to No. 3 Florida 4-3, Kansas 3-1, No. 1 Washington 6-0, Hawai’i 10-0 and Fresno State 1-0.

Walk This Way
In freshman Kristi Oshiro’s 16 games batting leadoff she has started the East Carolina first inning with a walk eight times.

This weekend, Oshiro has been especially dangerous when leading off the game, reaching all four times with three singles and a walk.

You Can’t Catch Us
This season, the Pirates are 13-0 when leading after four innings, 11-0 when ahead through five frames and 10-0 when leading after six innings.

Since the start of the 2009 campaign, ECU is 71-4 when ahead through four frames, 67-2 leading after five innings and 68-0 with a lead through six innings.