East Carolina Pirates
Record: 16-8
RPI: 110
SOS: 132
Best Win: vs. St. John's (9-8, # 95 RPI)
The Pirates struggled out of the gate, getting swept by Virginia at home and also falling to Liberty en route to a 2-4 record in their first 6. Since then ECU has taken 14 of their last 18, including a sweep of CAA foe Elon on the road. With ECU and UNCW combining for 31 wins this season, and when factoring in the long-standing rivalry between the two schools, tomorrow night's contest should be the most anticipated and best attended game at Brooks Field to this point.
On the hill for ECU could be Junior lefty Nick Durazo (1-0, 0.55 ERA, 13 K's, 5 BB's, 16.1 innings), who started an 11-2 midweek victory over Princeton last week. It would be a surprise to see anyone else getting the nod given the number of lefty hitters in our lineup.
Junior Luke Lowery, who took home AAC Player of the Week honors on Mar 16, led the nation in homeruns as of March 19th, currently with 8. He is also among the top 20 in Batting Average (.446), On-Base Percentage (.548), RBI's (27) and Slugging Percentage (.862). Sophomores Travis Watkins (.400, 2 HR, 16 RBI, .451 OB%) and Bryce Harman (.375, 15 RBI, .569 SLG%, .489 OB%) are also swinging hot bats and might wreak havoc on whichever young pitcher we throw on the mound as our midweek starter.