By By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
GREENVILLE – The No. 23 East Carolina Pirates, fresh off a 26-6 drubbing of Norfolk State, open conference play against the UCF Knights this weekend.
The Pirates (13-4), riding a three-game winning streak, and Knights (7-12) begin their Conference USA series opener at 7 p.m. today inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. The teams will also play at 3 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Junior Chris Heston (2-0, 2.66 ERA) will start on the mound for the Pirates in tonight’s C-USA opener. Heston, who leads the team in innings pitched (23 2/3 innings), has fanned 23 and walked 12.
Sophomore All-American Seth Maness (1-0, 7.04 ERA), who leads the club with 24 strikeouts, will get the nod Saturday.
Mike Anderson (0-0, 4.00 ERA), a sophomore who started Tuesday’s outing against Richmond, will take the hill Sunday.
The Pirates, who are hitting .377 as a club, will face right-handed senior Kyle Sweat (2-1, 2.91 ERA) tonight.
Stephen Batts leads the way with a .471 average to go with a four homers and 17 RBIs.
Other top hitters are Trent Whitehead (.451, 14 RBIs), Brandon Henderson (.421, 4 HRs, 25 RBIs), Jared Avchen (.415, 2 HRs, 12 RBIs), Ryan Wood (.406, 3 HRs, 15 RBIs), Schieber (.373, 4 HRs, 19 RBIs), Dustin Harrington (.343, 1 HR, 9 RBIs), Devin Harris (.333, 1 HR, 7 RBIs), Austin Homan (.333, 8 RBIs), Kyle Roller (.328, 4 HRs, 20 RBIs) and Zach Wright (.286, 3 HRs, 6 RBIs).
UCF is hitting .287 collectively. Brandon Romans leads the Knights in home runs (6), RBIs (19) and average (.375).
Other top hitters are Shane Brown (.354, 2 HRs, 16 RBIs), Chad Hartman (.351, 2 HRs, 9 RBIs), Jake Huxtable (.300) and Kiko Vazquez (.250, 4 HRs, 14 RBIs).