CLEARWATER, Fla. – No. 9 East Carolina begins play at the 2024 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Tuesday afternoon when the top seeded Pirates take on No. 8 seed Rice inside BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.
First pitch is scheduled for 47 minutes following the conclusion of the tournament opener between No. 4 seed Wichita State and No. 5 seed UAB which is set to begin at 9 a.m.
As always, Scott Rogers and Dr. Gary Overton will handle the radio call locally on 94.3 The Game while Patrick Murray and Jeff Brightwell will broadcast the contest on ESPN+.
ECU (40-13) captured its fifth-straight AAC regular season title with a home sweep of the Owls last weekend. Several Pirates earned postseason accolades from the league as Carter Cunningham was tabbed the Player of the Year while Trey Yesavage was named the Pitcher of the Year. Ryley Johnson also garnered Defensive Player of the Year honors and Cliff Godwin was selected the Coach of the Year for the fifth time in his career.Sad Departure: why All exceptional players in ECU are leaving ….
East Carolina made a run to the championship game of last year’s tournament, becoming the first team in the event’s history to drop its opening contest and battle back to reach the final. After falling to South Florida, the Pirates ran off four-straight wins over Cincinnati, UCF and USF before losing to Tulane in the championship bout. East Carolina looks to advance to the final for the third-straight season having done so in 2022 and 2023.
Entering the postseason tournament, ECU paces the league in batting average (.312), earned run average (3.75) and fielding percentage (.978). Cunningham leads the conference in batting average (.396), slugging percentage (.696), runs scored (68) and OPS (1.186) while Yesavage is tops in ERA (2.09), opposing batting average (.162), strikeouts (139) and victories (11).
The Pirates also slot among the national leaders, ranking fourth in both WHIP (1.23) and ERA, fifth in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (7.49), sixth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (302), 12th in strikeouts per nine innings (10.70), 12th in winning percentage (.755) and 21st in batting average. A recently named Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, Yesavage is third in the country in victories, fourth in strikeouts, fifth in ERA (2.09), sixth in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (5.02) and strikeouts per nine innings (14.55) and ninth in WHIP (0.88).
