East Carolina resumes series with Wake Forest

Pirates to play Demon Deacons for the first time since 2001

After collecting a much-needed CUSA series win at Marshall over the weekend, East Carolina will travel to nearby Zebulon, NC--approximately 60 miles from Greenville--to play ACC foe Wake Forest at Five-County Stadium--home of Minor League baseball's Carolina Mudcats.  First-pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.

ECU leads the all-time series, 11-6, but the programs haven't met since 2001.

The Pirates (30-17, 11-10) struggled to produce any offense against Marshall's starting pitching, but were able to mount a pair of ninth inning rallies in the first and third games of the series to take the series from the Thundering Herd.

ECU scored 11 of its 15 runs in the eighth and ninth innings.  The Pirates trailed 8-2 after eight on Friday, but pushed across six in the ninth before winning 9-8 after a Zach Wright solo shot in the tenth.  Following a frustrating 7-1 defeat in game two--in which the Pirates left 15 on base, ECU found itself in a 4-1 hole after five in the rubber game.  However, it chipped away to tighten the gap to 4-3 and wound up winning the game after tallying two runs--the second on a squeeze play--in the ninth.

Freshman Jonathan Holt has just 29 at-bats, but he has made the most of his chances.  Holt batted just twice against the Herd, but was able to produce clutch hits in each--something that the Pirates have struggled to do for much of the season.

ECU, which is hitting .285 as a team, is led at the plate by part-time starter Philip Clark.  The speedy corner outfielder, who has started 27 of the 43 games in which he has played, is hitting .324 and is tied with Trent Whitehead for the team-lead with ten stolen bases.

Jack Reinheimer and Corey Thompson, who are each hitting .306, are the only other Pirates batting over .300.  Thompson is second on the team with 31 RBI.

Trent Whitehead, who is hitting .297, has a team-high 15 doubles and is tied for second in homers with four.

Clean-up hitter Zach Wright is hitting just .267, but leads the club in homers (11) and RBI (32).

Wake Forest (20-26, 10-14), who is coached by second-year boss Tom Walter, is coming off a three-game sweep of Boston College on Senior weekend in Winston-Salem.

The Demon Deacons, who are hitting just .227 as a team, are led by Mac Williamson and Carlos Lopez.  WFU has, however, hit 42 home runs.

Williamson is hitting .287 while Lopez is at .278.  The duo is tied for the team-lead with nine homers.  They also have nine doubles apiece.

Matt Conway, who is the only other Deac batting above .250, is hitting .259 and has a team-high 12 doubles.

WFU has struggled on the field as it possesses just a .959 fielding percentage.  The Deacs have a team ERA of 4.59.

The pitching match-up will likely feature East Carolina senior righty Zach Woods (1-2, 3.52) facing Wake Forest junior lefty Zach White (2-4, 6.13).

Woods has worked 30.2 innings in 11 appearances--seven of which have been starts.  He has struck out 30 and opponents are batting .277 against him.

White, who has started eight games in his 16 appearances, has allowed 49 hits in 39.2 innings.  Opponents are hitting .297 against him.

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