After earning a three-game sweep of Louisville to move into sole possession of second place in Conference USA last weekend, East Carolina opens a three-game series at league leader DePaul Saturday. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for a 1 p.m. EDT start, as is Sunday's single game.

East Carolina (12-3 C-USA) enters the weekend series two games behind the conference-leading Blue Demons (14-1 C-USA) in the loss column. The Pirates have won 10 of their last 11 conference games, while DePaul has prevailed in 10 consecutive league tilts.

The Pirates will be looking to secure their first-ever road win against DePaul. ECU is 2-8 against the Blue Demons since joining Conference USA and 0-3 against them in Chicago. The Blue Demons won the season series a year ago 3-1 and eliminated the Pirates from the C-USA tournament with a 2-1 victory.

Weather is expected to be a large factor this weekend with the forecast calling for rain and snow showers with heavy winds and temperatures in the lows 40s Saturday. The outlook for Sunday is better, but temperatures are expected to remain in the 40s under cloudy skies.

The pitching staffs rank two and three in the league in earned run average with DePaul sporting a 1.97 ERA and ECU holding a 2.02 ERA. Pirate pitchers are holding opposing hitters to a .195 batting average and lead the conference in batters struck out (360). Sophomore Keli Harrell, who boasts the fourth most wins in the NCAA this year with 24, enters the weekend's match up 14 strikeouts shy of 300 for the season; she already owns the ECU single season mark.

Offensively for ECU, senior Kate Manuse continues to lead the Pirate attack, which leads the conference in runs scored, hits, RBI and home runs. She leads C-USA in doubles, base on balls, RBI, total bases, on-base percentage and ranks second in home runs. Should she be issued a pair of walks this weekend, she would establish new school and conference single season records.

ECU currently has four players that rank among the Conference USA top 10 in hits. Senior Leigh Savoy and junior Krista Jessup are tied for second with 64 hits each, while Manuse is fourth with 63 and senior Mandi Nichols is tied for eighth with 54.

East Carolina has won 50 games thus far in 2005, the most of any team in the country and ranks 20th nationally in terms of winning percentage (50-13, .794). The Pirates have already surpassed their previous best C-USA season win total of 10, established in 2002 and 2004.