ECU Softball finds wind back in sails

East Carolina’s University Softball team (29-11, 6-9 American Athletic Conference) has found success in their last few games, winning eight of their last 11 games.

The Pirates have turned it up as of late, winning eight of their last 11 games they’ve played. In those 11 games, the Pirates have outscored their opponents 58-42. ECU is on a four game winning streak after sweeping the University of Texas at San Antonio (12-29, 3-12 AAC) in a three game series and then taking down Campbell University (21-17-1, 11-4 Big South Conference) by a score of 3-1.

The three wins over UTSA gave the Pirates a much needed boost to their conference record, as before, they were sitting at 3-9. While the Pirates are still near the bottom of the AAC standings, they still have 12 conference games remaining. Three of the games are against Tulsa University

(25-12, 10-5 AAC), who is No. 2 in the AAC.

The offense for the Pirates on the year has been excellent statistically in a couple of areas. ECU is ranked No. 21 in batting average, No. 41 in runs per game with 5.8 runs and have batted in 211 runs so far in 40 games. ECU sophomore outfielder Emma Jackson is top 50 in batting average in the nation, hitting a .421 average which ranks No. 48 best.

ECU utility players senior Taylor Woodring and graduate student Morgan Johnson have also been seeing success behind the plate. Woodring is currently batting at a .409 average, while Johnson has a batting average of .389 and has 38 Run Batter In’s (RBI) this season, second to only Jackson on the team.

Pirate graduate student catcher Annie Kate Dalton, who transferred from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (24-13, 6-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) this year is third in RBI’s with 24 while recording 31 hits on the year.

For pitching, there’s been a bounce back after the rough patch the Pirates suffered in the series against Florida Atlantic University (32-9, 12-3 AAC). In that series, the Pirates gave up 20 runs in three games. Since then, ECU has only given up more than three runs once, in the final game against UTSA.

ECU freshman Taylor Apple had a solid two game series against UTSA, where she struck out ten batters and gave up only five hits. Against Campbell, a combined effort from Apple and ECU pitchers senior Addy Bullis and junior Taylor Hatch, held Campbell to one run and three total hits. The pitching core for ECU is ranked in the top 50 for earned run average (ERA), with 2.66.

Following the game against No. 6 ranked Duke University (33-3, 13-2 ACC) on April 9, The Pirates will take on Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma in a three-game series beginning on April 12, and concluding on April 14. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.