April 25, 2011
NORFOLK, VA-- The ODU Baseball Monarchs host the 29th ranked Pirates of East Carolina Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex. ECU is 27-13 overall and 8-7 in Conference USA while the Monarchs come in at 21-20 and 13-8 in the Colonial AthleticAssociation. The game is Monarch Bank day.
Leading the Pirates is Jack Reinheimer at .323, while Zach Wright has nine homersand 27 RBI. Corey Thompson is hitting .297 with a team best 28 RBI.
On the mound ECU has three five game winners in Seth Simmons (5-1/0.41 ERA) withfive saves, while Kevin Brandt is 5-1 with a 1.67 ERA and Seth Maness is 5-3 with a 2.05 ERA. As a team, ECU has a 2.30 ERA and hitting .285.
The Pirates lead the series, 41-28. ECU defeated ODU, 11-2 in Greenville last year. ECU is ranked by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.The Monarchs last beat ECU in 2002,in Greenville, 9-6 behind the pitching of Justin Verlander.
Josh Wright leads the Monarchs with a .350 batting average along with 10 homers and33 RBI. First baseman Joey Burney also has six homers for the Monarchs.
ODU has three six game winners in Ben Tomchick at 6-4 with a 2.98 ERA, Kyle Haldis 6-2 with a 3.15 ERA and Phil McCarthy is 6-3 with a 3.90 ERA. Hald still leadsthe CAA in strikeouts with 82 in 68.2 innings of work. Senior Adam Wisniewski leads the CAA in saves with 10, and freshman Dean Ali has a team best ERA at 2.58 in21 appearances.
The Monarchs are currently tied with Delaware for second in the CAA with UNC Wilmington leading the pack. After the ECU game, ODU breaks for final examsuntil its three-game CAA series at Delaware, May 6-8.
CAA STANDINGSUNCW 12-6 23-17Delaware 13-8 22-17ODU 13-8 21-20JMU 12-9 27-14Ga. State 10-8 29-13W&M 11-10 21-21Towson 9-9 16-20-1VCU 8-10 16-22Hofstra 9-12 11-22Northeastern 7-11 12-24George Mason 4-17 16-25-1