UP TO THE PLATE Houston (16-13, 2-4 The American) vs. ECU (22-6, 6-0 The American) April 5-7 | Don Sanders Field at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park G1: Live Stats | American Digital Network | Live Audio
ON ECU • The Pirates, who sit as high as No. 11 in the national rankings, enter the weekend with a 22-6 overall record and are the only remaining undefeated team in The American with a 6-0 mark. • Friday starter junior Jake Agnos was named The American’s Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Last week at USF, Agnos tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts through six scoreless innings in a 4-0 series-opening win over the Bulls. • Sophomore two-way player Alec Burleson leads The American in batting average (.408), while junior first baseman Spencer Brickhouse holds the top mark in on-base percentage (.510). • Junior left fielder Bryant Packard was tabbed The American Preseason Player of the Year. Packard, Agnos, Saturday starter Tyler Smith and redshirt junior catcher Jake Washer were named to The American Preseason All-Conference Team. • The Pirates, who finished 14-10 in conference play in 2018, were picked to win the league in The American Preseason Poll entering the 2019 season. • ECU is batting .295 as a team and has a 3.34 ERA, compared to opponents’ .228 average and 5.77 ERA.
The Coogs are banged up, but ECU is coming in healthy.
Padgett, Hyland, Pettitte, and Cherry are all banged up. Bielo looks to be back healthy, though and Henry seems to be finally getting his mojo back after an offseason injury.
“(Spencer) Brickhouse, (Alec) Burleson and (Bryant) Packard are healthy,” Godwin said. “Everybody wants to make a big deal about us starting out 8-5 but at the end of the day you’ve got to have three of your best players in the lineup. We’ve just got more cohesion with the entire team. We’ve gotten closer to one another.
Huge win again need to get better on defense and 14 LOB is not good same kids keep coming up with runners on base with no chance to hit we need Padgett back in center when he gets healthy
HOUSTON NOTES Offense: • Triolo finished 3-for-4 with two singles, a solo homer, one RBI and two runs scored. • Senior left fielder Rey Fuentes III went 2-for-5, but reached four times in the game also getting on behind two errors. • Freshman designated hitter Derrick Cherry was 2-for-3. • Sophomore catcher Kyle Lovelace was 1-for-3 and recorded two caught stealings behind the plate.
Pitching: • Junior southpaw pitcher Lael Lockhart Jr. (2-4) picked up his second win of the season. The native of Friendswood, Texas, carried a no-hit bid two outs into the fifth inning, and after a Pirate reached on an error in the top of the first, Lockhart Jr. didn’t allow a base runner to get to second base until the eight inning. In total, he scattered four hits and two walks while recording a pair of strikeouts across a career-long seven and two-third innings pitched. • Junior Fred Villarreal logged the final inning and one-third to record his American Athletic Conference leading seventh save of the season.