ECU Travels To Virginia Tech and Radford | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of ECU Sports.



    GREENVILLE, N.C.     East Carolina (6-5) returns to action with a pair of road midweek contests at Virginia Tech (9-1) and Radford (5-7). Tuesday's game is slated for a 4 p.m. (EST) first pitch and will be streamed on ACCNX, while Wednesday's game is set to begin at 3 p.m. The Pirates come into this week's play having won five-straight and claiming the 2022 Keith LeClair Classic title with wins over Indiana State, Michigan and then No. 21 Maryland.

    The Pirates, who have made 31 NCAA Regional appearances, won their second-straight American Athletic Conference regular season title with a league-best 20 wins, hosted the Greenville Regional (sixth in program history) for the third consecutive year in 2021 after earning a No. 13 National seed and advanced to the Vanderbilt Super Regional. ECU finished ranked in all six national polls (Collegiate Baseball/No. 12, D1Baseball/No. 12, Perfect Game/No. 12, Baseball America/No. 13, NCBWA/No. 13 and USA Today/No. 13) in 2021 after posting a 44-17 overall record.

    ECU returns 25 players including Freshman All-America selections C.J. Mayhue (2020), Zach Agnos (2021) and Josh Moylan (2021) along with AAC All-Conference performers Jake Kuchmaner (2019) and Bryson Worrell (2021). In all, the roster consists of 13 freshmen, 19 sophomores, five juniors and five seniors.

    The 2021-22 recruiting class consists of three infielders (Quinn Allen, Landon Howard and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart), two outfielders (Carter Cunningham and Luke Nowak), two catchers (Ayden Edwards and Ryan McCrystal) and nine pitchers (Merritt Beeker, Charlie Hodges, Jake Hunter, Jordan Little, Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman, Erik Ritchie, Ben Terwilliger, Jaden Winter and Trey Yesavage).

    IT'S MUSTACHE MARCH

    As the calendar turns to a new month, the East Carolina baseball team (players, coaching staff and support staff) will once again participate in Mustache March to raise money and awareness for ALS Research and the Jim "Catfish" hunter chapter. This year, the Pirates will team up with the Pitt Community College (PCC), Memphis and Michigan baseball programs to help fight and strikeout ALS with a goal of raising $10,000.

    As most of Pirate Nation knows, the ECU Baseball program has been greatly affected by ALS as former head coach and ECU Hall of Famer Keith LeClair was diagnosed with ALS while coaching in 2001. The Pirates continue to follow the mission, vision and characteristics that made Coach LeClair such a tremendous leader, father, friend and coach. Current PCC Head Coach Tommy Eason coached under LeClair from 1998-2005, Michigan Head Coach Erik Bakich and Assistant Head Coach Nick Schnabel both played for LeClair and were teammates of ECU skipper Cliff Godwin from 1999-2000.

    Starting Tuesday, March 1 and running through the end of the month, the Pirates will grow mustaches to continue raising money for ALS research which over the last four years has raised over $36,000. With the additional support from ECU Dowdy Student Stores, the four-year total has eclipsed $57,000 in total donations.

    INDIVIDUAL QUICK HITS (prior to games)

• Eighth-year head coach Cliff Godwin stands third on ECU's all-time wins list with 264 victories ... Prior to the start of the season, his current win percentage of .665 is tied for fifth among active head coaches at four-year schools ... He passed his college coach and ECU Hall of Famer Keith LeClair (212) on March 8, 2020 with a 4-1 win at Charlotte in the series finale.
• For the third-straight year, Jake Kuchmaner was penciled into the weekend rotation ... In three starts, he owns an 0-1 record with a 2.63 ERA where he has allowed six runs (four earned) on 12 hits in 13.2 innings ... As a Pirate, he is 17-7 with a 3.85 career ERA over 50 appearances (40 starts) ... The lefty has worked 198.2 innings with 162 strikeouts to 51 walks ... A First-Team All-AAC selection in 2019, he tossed the 31st perfect game in NCAA DI history at Maryland on March 17.
• Josh Grosz earned his first career win in relief at Duke (March 1) tossing three scoreless frames with five punch outs ... Picked up second win of the year against Michigan (March 5) ... For his career, he is 2-0 with a 5.48 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 23.0 IP.
• Jake Hunter made his collegiate debut against Bryant (2/20) as the Sunday starter ... In three weekend starts, he sports a 0-0 record with a 2.61 ERA .. The right-hander combined on a 5-0 shut out against North Carolina (2/27) tossing 3.1 scoreless frames with three punch outs ... Became the first true freshman to start a game opening weekend since Trey Benton (2017) at Ole Miss.
• Carter Spivey had a career outing against North Carolina (2/27) where he tossed 4.1 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts (both career-highs) ... In five outings, which included a start at Campbell, he is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and has struck out 15 while walking one in 9.2 total frames.
• C.J. Mayhue was tabbed as a preseason All-American (third-team) by NCBWA ... Prior to the season opener, he earned inclusion on the NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year Watch List for the second consecutive year ... At ECU, he has appeared in 48 games (all relief) posting a 6-1 record with eight saves ... Owns a 2.77 ERA and has struck out 105 batters while walking 32 over 74.2 innings ... Blew first save opportunity of the season against Bryant (2/19) allowing two runs over three innings.
• Lane Hoover ranks second on the team with a .378 batting average ... During his four years at ECU, he has started 103 of 122 games posting a .311 batting average with a home run, 10 doubles and 43 RBI.
• Alec Makarewicz was named to AAC Honor Roll (March 7) ... Enters midweek action having reached base safely in 9-of-11 games this year ... He leads the club with 12 RBI (4 at Duke/March 1) and is tied for first in hits (13) with Bryson Worrell ... Belted his seventh career home run in the 10th inning against the Bryant (Feb. 19) and eighth against Michigan (March 5).
• Justin Wilcoxen has started 8-of-10 games played behind the plate ... Currently third on the team with a .344 batting average and has tallied at least one hit in 7-of-8 last games ... Tallied three multi-hit and one multi-RBI games this season ... Hit first career home run against North Carolina (Feb. 27).
• Jacob Jenkins-Cowart sports a team-best .423 average and has tallied multiple hits in a game four times ... Enters midweek action riding a five-game hitting streak ... Drove in a pair of runs in ECU's 5-0 win over UNC.
• Skylar Brooks has appeared in a team-high seven games (all relief/5th nationally) where he owns an 0-1 record with two saves and a 1.35 ERA ... Fanned 11 batters while walking three in 6.2 innings ... Notched saves against UNC (Feb. 27) and Indiana State (March 4).
• Josh Moylan ranks 24th nationally with 12 walks after drawing seven free passes during the Pirates 4-0 week ... He tallied four walks at Duke (March 1) - something that hadn't been done since Corey Thompson in 2012 (vs. Milwaukee) ... Has appeared in 70 career games (68 starts) and owns .281 career batting average with seven home runs and 41 RBI.
• Zach Agnos leads the team with three game-winning RBI, including two during the LeClair Classic ... He has four multi-hit and two multi-RBI games ... In his time at ECU, he has started all 89 games played where he is batting .263 with seven home runs, 18 doubles and 61 RBI.
• Ryder Giles has started 138 of 143 games played at shortstop since stepping on campus in 2019 ... Last year he led the team with 16 total sacrifices (15 sac hits) where he ranked second nationally ... Currently stands third all-time in the Pirate annuals with 36 sacrifices ... Earned his sixth career save against Maryland tossing 2.1 scoreless frames with three strikeouts.

    TEAM QUICK HITS (prior to games)

• ECU opened its 88th season of collegiate baseball (1932-42, 1946-present) against Bryant (Feb. 18) falling 10-2 ... The Pirates have made a regional appearance in 17 of the last 22 seasons, including five of six under Godwin (2015, '16, '18, '19, '21) - no post-season in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• Heading into this week's action, ECU has been ranked or received votes in at least one national poll for 64-straight weeks (began in 2018 preseason).
• ECU has five potential two-way players on its roster ... Dubbed #2WayU by Godwin, the players are Zach Agnos, CJ Boyd, Skylar Brooks, Cam Clonch and Ryder Giles.

    PROBABLE STARTERS (2022 stats)

    Tuesday: RHP Nick Logusch (0-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. LHP Ryan Kennedy (0-0, 4.15 ERA)

    Wednesday: TBA vs. TBA

    GODWIN AT A GLANCE

    Cliff Godwin, who was named the 16th head coach in school history on June 25, 2014, was a four-year letterwinner for the Pirates from 1998-2001 ... He has been a part of 12 NCAA Regional and two College World Series teams at the Division I level as an assistant coach and head coach ... During his seven years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to five NCAA Regional berths (2018, 2019 and 2021 Greenville Regional host), three Super Regional appearances and a pair of American Athletic Conference Regular season and a pair of AAC Tournament crowns while posting a 265-135-1 (.661) overall record ... Sixteen players have earned All-America status, while 15 were NCAA All-Regional selections, 23 were named all-conference (18 first-teamers) and 14 were drafted by Major League Baseball teams ... A three-time AAC Coach-of-the-Year selection (2015, 2019, 2021), Godwin was inducted into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame in January of 2016 ... In 2018, he completed a summer stint on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team staff that posted a 12-3 record that included series wins over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba ... As a player, he helped former ECU skipper Keith LeClair's teams post a 169-76 four-year ledger, including 46-plus wins in each of his final three seasons (46-16 in '99, 46-18 in '00 and 47-13 in '01) ... ECU won a pair of CAA Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Regionals every season from 1999 to 2001 ... The Pirates were the top seed in their regional all three years, including a No. 7 national seed in 2001 where they advanced to the Super Regional round before being eliminated by Tennessee.