East Carolina Hosts In-State Foe North Carolina | Eastern North Carolina Now

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



    GREENVILLE, N.C.     The East Carolina softball team kicks off a seven-game homestand Wednesday when it hosts North Carolina in a non-conference contest at Max R. Joyner Family Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. and the game will stream live via ESPN+ with Evan Budrovich and Natalie Kalibat on the call.

    The Pirates (8-10) traveled over to Elon last weekend for the Cardinal Invite and went 2-2 with wins over Michigan State and Detroit-Mercy. ECU also dropped a game to the Spartans and fell to host Phoenix in Sunday's tournament finale.

    The Tar Heels and Pirates have put together a lengthy all-time series that enumerates nearly 100 contests. North Carolina leads that series by a 54-35 margin and has won nine of the last 10 meetings. The teams have not played since the 2019 campaign when North Carolina defeated ECU 5-0 in Greenville. The last Pirate victory occurred April 23, 2015 when East Carolina downed the Tar Heels 4-3 in walkoff fashion. ECU is 15-15 against North Carolina at home.

    Faith Jarvis leads the squad with a .417 batting average and tops the club in hits (25), runs scored (13), stolen bases (12) and total bases (30). As for the pitching staff, Madisyn Davis has put together a solid campaign thus far. She is 3-1 with a 1.29 earned run average and 28 strikeouts in 32.2 innings of work. Davis has tossed two complete games in four starts.

    As a team, East Carolina is hitting .291 with 31 doubles, six triples, nine home runs and 29 stolen bases. In the circle, the Pirates own a collective 4.02 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 122 innings. ECU ranks third in the American Athletic Conference in batting average while slotting fourth in ERA. East Carolina also tops the AAC in sacrifice bunts (13) and sac flies (seven).

    The Competition

    North Carolina (12-9) split a quartet of contests at home last weekend, picking up wins over Connecticut and UNC Greensboro while falling to Penn State and then No. 12 Oregon. The Tar Heels are batting .270 as a squad while the pitchers are putting up a 3.67 ERA with 117 strikeouts in 129.2 innings. Bri Stubbs tops North Carolina in batting average (.407), runs scored (15) and hits (22). Hannah George has been the most used pitcher, throwing a team-high 47.1 innings. She is 7-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 40 strikeouts.