East Carolina opens its 2024 baseball season on Friday with the first matchup in a 3-game series with Rider at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Pirates junior right-hander Trey Yesavage, who has made several preseason All-America lists, is scheduled to deliver the first pitch at 4 p.m. The contest will be shown on ESPN+.
ECU went 47-19 in 2023 with an 18-6 record in the American Athletic Conference. The Pirates are picked to repeat as AAC champions.
ECU is ranked No. 11 nationally by D1 Baseball.
Alumnus and former Academic All-America Cliff Godwin embarks on his 10th campaign at the helm with a good nucleus from a club that reached the championship of the Charlottesville regional. Godwin is 351-170-1 as coach of the Pirates. He has been AAC Coach of the Year four times. His teams have earned seven NCAA Tournament berths.
Returning standouts include first baseman/outfielder Carter Cunningham, outfielder Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, shortstop Joey Berini, outfielder Luke Nowak, second baseman Jacob Starling, catcher Justin Wilcoxen and left-handed pitcher Zach Root.
Wilcoxen and Berini each hit .318 last year. Cunningham (.317) and Starling (.311) helped the Pirates hit .292 as a team. Starling had 10 homers and 52 RBIs.
ECU leads the series with Rider, 8-0. The Broncs were 36-21 last year and made the NCAA field.
The series continues on Saturday with a 2 p.m. start as Root (3-3, 5.33 earned run average) is the scheduled starter for the Pirates.
Jake Hunter (4-2, 4.71) is slated to go Sunday in the series finale at 1 p.m.
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