Pirate Baseball sweeps Rider to open season

After a rough fall for ECU sports fans, East Carolina University’s baseball team (3-0, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) started their spring season with a opening weekend series sweep against Rider University (0-3, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference).

The 11th-ranked Pirates opened their 2024 campaign with a home series against the Broncs, going on to sweep the three game matchup in style - an opening day double digit victory followed by two shutouts.

On opening day, the Pirates opened up the scoring quickly. Seven runs would cross the plate in the first inning, chasing Broncs starter Brian Young from the game before he could record an out.

Young started the game with a walk before hitting the next batter on the first pitch. He gave up a single to load the bases and then walked in the first run. Four consecutive singles would score the next five runs, prompting the pitching change.

Junior outfielder Jacob Jenkins-Cowart hit the squad’s first home run of the season in the sixth inning, adding to his productive weekend at the plate. Senior second baseman Jacob Starling would reach base four times, thanks to a walk and a hit by pitch. Senior outfielder and first baseman Carter Cunningham had three hits, scoring two runs and picking up two RBI.

They would take game one with a comfortable 16-2 victory in front of an opening day record crowd of 5,221. The Pirates tallied 15 hits and held the Broncs to only two, both courtesy of two solo home runs from freshman Kyle Neri. Those two shots from Neri would be the only runs scored by the Broncs in the series.

On Saturday, sophomore lefty Zach Root pitched 4.2 solid innings, holding the Broncs to three hits and picking up a career-high seven strikeouts. As a whole, the Pirates pitching staff would hold Rider to just five hits, as they collected 13 strikeouts in the game.

Cunningham would kick off the scoring in the second inning, taking the first pitch he saw for his first home run of the year. Later, Starling would hit a leadoff home run of his own, marking the beginning of a four-run inning for the Pirates. They would take game two in a 7-0 shutout.

On Sunday’s series finale, it was junior right-hander Jake Hunter who started on the mound for the Pirates, pitching five shutout innings, holding the Broncs to one hit and striking out six. Hunter would be relieved by fellow junior Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman, who struck out five batters in two scoreless innings, giving up only one hit.

A four run second inning and a three run fourth would be all the offense offered in this game, but it would prove enough to secure the sweep. Sophomore infielder Dixon Williams got the scoring started with an RBI single, and three home runs would take care of the rest.

Senior infielder Cam Clonch would hit a three run bomb in the second, good for his first of the year. In the fourth inning, Starling and Jenkins-Cowart would each hit their second home runs, capping off the second 7-0 shutout of the weekend and clinching the sweep.

Despite the series sweep, shutdown pitching, and dominant offense, the real story of the weekend can only be Parker Byrd. Byrd made an appearance as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth, making history in the process as he became the first NCAA Division I student athlete to play in a game with a prosthetic leg.

As if that wasn’t incredible enough, Byrd would get on base in the process, drawing a walk. Freshman Jason Janesko came in as a pinch runner, and he would actually come around to score on a bases-loaded walk during the five-run eighth inning.

All-in-all, it was a good weekend for ECU baseball. It’s never an easy feat to sweep a weekend series - beating a team three times in a row is harder than most would think! And yet, the Pirates picked up their first series sweep three games into the season.

For their next matchup, the Pirates will head to Buies Creek on Feb. 20 to take on in-state foe Campbell. First pitch is set for approximately 5:05 P.M. from Jim Perry Stadium.