East Carolina University’s baseball team (21-6, 4-2 American Athletic Conference) heads down to Florida Atlantic University (17-9, 4-2 AAC) for their third conference series of their campaign on April 5 through April 7.
It’s the first time the two teams have met since a lone series in 2014, when both programs were members of Conference USA. ECU took that series in Boca Raton after dropping game one.
Junior catcher Ryan McCrystal remains hitting at a very hot clip, batting .383 on the season. He’s sitting on a nine-game hit streak, with 11 RBI in that span. Senior first baseman and outfielder Carter Cunningham is batting .406, pacing ECU in most offensive categories, including home runs, hits, and RBI.
ECU’s bullpen as a whole has settled in in a big way, with several solid outings within the past couple weeks. Junior righthander Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman leads the way with an ERA of 0.90, which ranks second in the country. Lunsford-Shenkman also still sits top ten in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings, with 50 under his belt.
Senior righthander Danny Beal owns the most appearances in the conference, with 16 on the year. He remains one of the most dependent arms in the American, with an ERA of 2.77 through 26 innings.
ECU’s starting rotation recently saw a little bit of a shakeup, as freshman Ethan Norby made his first college start in a weekend series. Norby was excellent in game three against University of Alabama at Birmingham (12-15, 1-5 AAC), going four no-hit innings with six strikeouts, before being removed with a large lead.
Junior righty Trey Yesavage is sixth in the country with 63 strikeouts, which is the most in the conference. He owns an ERA of 2.18, with opponents batting only .174 against him. Sophomore lefthander Zach Root owns the best ERA of all three starters, sitting 1.98. Both Root and Yesavage rank among the top arms in the conference, and among the country.
The Pirates are back in action Tuesday as they host Elon (11-16, 1-5 Coastal Athletic Association) for a midweek back in Clark-LeClair. First pitch for that game is set for 6 PM.
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