Marshall University Athletics
Baseball Prepares for Weekend at No. 36 East Carolina
5/3/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 3, 2012
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall baseball will travel to No. 36 East Carolina in Greenville, N.C. for a three-game Conference USA series starting on Friday.
Game times are scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m.
All three games will be streamed online and can be viewed through CBS All-Access. Fans without a subscription to the CBS package can follow the game through Gametracker or live chat.
Game One: Friday, 6 p.m.
Probable Starters: Lance Elder vs. Kevin Brandt
Video | | Chat
Game Two: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Probable Starters: Aaron Blair vs. Tyler Joyner
Video | | Chat
Game Three: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Probable Starters: Mike Mason vs. Jharel Cotton
Video | | Chat
East Carolina owns a 16-4 record in the all-time series with the Thundering Herd and has won all six of the three-game series since Marshall became a member of C-USA in 2006. Within the series history, Marshall and East Carolina have played eight one-run games with ECU relishing victories in them all.
In its most recent outing, the Herd (15-28, 3-12 C-USA) fell to Southern Miss in a three-game bid where only four runs separated the two teams for the entire series. A week prior to that, Marshall faced Houston in a series decided by just three runs. MU lost both series two games to one.
East Carolina (28-16-1, 10-7-1 C-USA) is looking to respond from a recent home series against Tulane where the Pirates were forced to avoid a sweep with a game three victory over the Green Wave. Pirate starting pitcher Jharel Cotton fanned a career high 12 hitters in the victory and extended his conference-leading wins count to eight. The junior remains undefeated at 8-0 and ranks seventh in C-USA in strikeouts (55).
Marshall will send the fifth and ninth ranked C-USA strikeout leaders in Aaron Blair (69) and Mike Mason (51). Sophomore Blair has limited opposing hitters to a .227 clip which has him ranked seventh among league pitchers.
East Carolina earned a ranking of No. 22 in the Perfect Game Top 50 preseason poll but has since dropped to No. 36. Recent series losses to Rice and Tulane along with a midweek loss to No. 10 UNC caused last week's No. 27 status to weaken.
In conference action, the Pirates have beaten UAB 3-0, Houston 2-0-1, and Memphis 2-1 while losing to UCF, Rice, and Tulane 2-1.
