By By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GREENVILLE — The No. 19 East Carolina Pirates will put the nation’s longest Division I winning streak on the line tonight when they play UNC-Wilmington.
The Pirates (19-6, 3-0 Conference USA), winners in 17 of their last 18 games, are riding a 13-game winning streak into today’s 7 p.m. game at Clark-LeClair Stadium. It will cap off a 20-game homestand for ECU.
Coach Billy Godwin’s club can tie the fourth longest streak in school history (14 straight in 1977) with a win over the Seahawks. The school record is 19 straight in 2004. The 1986 and 1989 clubs won 15 consecutive games, tying for the second best in history.
UNC-Wilmington (12-15) enters the game having lost three straight.
Sophomore Bailey Daniels (2-1, 4.71) will get the ball for ECU. Daniels, who has won his last two games, has struck out 22 and walked seven in 21 innings of work.
Senior left-hander Jeff Ostrander (1-0, 3.00 ERA), who hasn’t pitched since a 7-4 win over Liberty on Feb. 10, is expected to see some action as well. Ostrander has been sidelined with an injury.
UNC-Wilmington will counter with 6-4 freshman right-hander Seth Frankoff (1-1, 3.75 ERA), who was named the Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Co-Rookie-of-the-Week on Monday after earning his first collegiate win last week in a non-conference game against Campbell.
Making his second collegiate start, Frankoff held Campbell to two unearned runs on five hits and a walk in a 6-2 win. He struck out a career-high eight batters, while working a career-long seven plus innings.
Frankoff has fanned 14 and walked eight in 12 innings this season.
ECU enters the game hitting .293 with 24 homers and 155 RBIs. Drew Schieber leads the Pirates with a .389 average. He has three homers and seven RBIs.
Other top hitters for the Pirates are Stephen Batts (.380, 24 RBIs), C-USA Hitter-of-the-Week Harrison Eldridge (.358), Dale Mollenhauer (.340, three homers, 22 RBIs), Ryan Tousley (.299, five homers, 26 RBIs), Ryan Wood (.281), Corey Kemp (.270) and Brandon Henderson (.244, five homers, 16 RBIs).
Eldridge was named to the College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll this week.
The junior hit .533 (8-for-15) for the week. Eldridge collected two hits and scored two runs in three of four games last week, pushing his career multi-hit games to 43. In the four games, Eldridge totaled eight runs from the lead-off spot in the batting order, had three RBIs, four doubles and two walks, while raising his batting average to .358.
The Seahawks are hitting .275 with 21 homers and 151 RBIs. Steve Halford leads the club with a .342 batting average. Other top hitters are Matt Holt (.301), Jonathan Batts (.295, five homers, 24 RBIs) and Mark Carver (.291).
The Pirates return to C-USA play Friday through Sunday at Tulane (19-7, 3-0), their first road games since Feb. 18. After playing at N.C. State on April 4, ECU returns home to host No. 8 Rice, April 6-8.
Conference USA
Team Conf. All
East Carolina 3-0 19-6
Tulane 3-0 19-7
Houston 3-0 14-12
Rice 2-1 19-9
So. Miss 1-2 17-8
UAB 0-0 12-13
Marshall 0-0 14-8
Memphis 0-0 14-9
UCF 0-0 15-13