By By KEVIN TRAVIS and BRIAN HAINES
Sport
GREENVILLE — Trent Whitehead had a spectacular sophomore season for the East Carolina Pirates. Another big season is expected from the junior outfielder, after he was named to the 10th Annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Pro-Line Athletic Preseason All-America Second-Team.
“I’m honored by it,” said Whitehead, a former Washington Pam Pack star, on Wednesday. “It’s a high honor. My coaches and teammates really helped me earn it.”
Whitehead said the award has fueled his desire to get the baseball season started. The Pirates open the season Feb. 19 against Virginia.
“That just fired me up,” said Whitehead, who begins spring practice with his teammates on Jan. 29. “It made me look forward to the season even more.”
Whitehead said the ECU single-season hit record with 105 hits last year. That number ranked fourth in the nation.
The lefty leadoff hitter hit .376 with seven home runs, 47 RBIs, 24 doubles and 78 runs scored.
Whitehead was named the NCAA Greenville Regional Most Outstanding Player after hitting .381 with a homer, five RBIs and five runs scored.
A second-team All-Conference USA and C-USA All-Tournament selection, Whitehead is hoping to do even better this season.
“I would like to have a similar season, but I want to improve as well,” Whitehead said. “That’s all coach (Billy) Godwin talks about. You always want to get better.
“The number one goal is getting to Omaha. We really want to get there this year.”
Roller also honored
Kyle Roller, ECU’s designated hitter, was also named to the NCBWA second team. He was also a 2009 first-team All-America selection by the America Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and Ping!Baseball.
Roller hit .366 with 16 home runs and 75 RBIs last year.
Tigers take Pirates down
By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The Pirates had 10 days off leading up to their matchup with Clemson, but all the extra practice time in the world could not have stopped Trevor Booker from filling up the stat sheet.
The Tigers’ forward fell one assist shy of a triple-double as he tallied 13 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists to top East Carolina 80-63 on Wednesday night.
Pirates coach Mack McCarthy opted to double team Booker most of the night and the Clemson big man made ECU pay by dishing out a school record for helpers by a big man in the rout.
“You have to take something away,” McCarthy said. “And we chose to try and do a good job on Booker. He has a great stat line, but he shot five of 13. We did about as well as you can do on him.”
The extra attention paid to Booker, coupled with blown defensive rotations by ECU (4-6), presented the Clemson perimeter players with wide open looks from downtown.
The main beneficiary of Booker’s double teams was Andre Young who shot 4-7 from three-point land to net a team-high 16 points. Fellow Tiger Tanner Smith also reached double-digit scoring and hit two threes en route to 14 points.
As a team, the No. 24 ranked Tigers (9-2) hit 10 of their 24 attempts from beyond the arc.
“The defense we were playing was to trap and double Booker,” ECU point guard Brock Young said. “It’s something we should get better at. If we are doubling then we should know our assignments. Everybody has to help the helpers, we just weren’t rotating like we were supposed to.”
Young finished the game with 11 points, while his eight assists moved him into second place on the Pirates’ all-time list with 366. That number is one more higher Japhet McNeil, who has now dropped to third on the list. Travis Holcomb-Faye holds the No. 1 spot with 413 assists.
Aside from a few highlight passes from Young, the ECU offense struggled to get points all night long against an active Clemson defense.
“We really couldn’t get into the swing of things,” Young said. “They played good deny defense on the wing. They over-played and put pressure on the ball and it was hard to get the offense going.
Power forward Darrius Morrow recorded his first double-double of the season as he scored 16 points while tying his career mark for rebounds with 12.
The Pirates showed flashes of life throughout the game, but anytime they got momentum the Tigers would hit a three.
Four of East Carolina’s starters hit double-digits in scoring, but got no help from the bench as the Tigers’ backups out-scored ECU’s 41-8.
“Clemson is a really deep team, their depth was the difference tonight,” McCarthy said. “We have to get a little bit more production off of the bench. I thought about only four of our starters played well enough to keep us in the game and have a chance to win.”
Shooting guard Jontae Sherrod was second on the team with 14 points, while Jamar Abrams netted 12.
Center Chad Wynn had a tough night and disappeared for stretches of the game. The Pirates’ big man tallied only two points and three rebounds in 21 minutes.
“Chad didn’t really have a great game tonight, but it’s a tough game for him as athletic and fast-paced as the game was.” McCarthy said.
Heading into Wednesday’s game Wynn had record over 10 boards in two straight contests.
The Pirates will look to rebound on Dec. 19 when they host St. Andrews at 7 p.m.
Pirate football players honored
Dodge picks up third All-America honor
Eskridge And Harris Named Honorable Mention All-America
ECU Sports Information
GREENVILLE – East Carolina senior punter Matt Dodge continued to pick up post-season honors when he was tabbed Second-Team All-America by SI.com Tuesday afternoon. Joining Dodge with SI.com honors were fellow classmate Van Eskridge and junior Dwayne Harris, who were named Honorable Mention All-America.
Earlier in the week Dodge, who was named first-team All-Conference USA by league coaches and Phil Steele Magazine, was named second-team (SportingNews) and third-team (Rivals.com) All-America. Dodge stands first in C-USA and second nationally in punting average (48.5), while ranking among the career NCAA active leaders in punt average (second), career yards (fourth), career punts (t-6th) and punts per game (13th).
In 40 career games, he has amassed 9,352 yards on 215 punts for a 43.5 average, which currently ranks second on the school's all-time punting charts. The preseason honorable mention All-America selection by CollegeFootballNews.com and Ray Guy Award Watch List candidate has dropped a total of 22 kicks inside the opponent 20-yard line and booted 21 of his 62 punts for 50 or more yards, including a season-long 73-yarder against Memphis, tying his career-long punt (Tulsa/2008).
Eskridge, a three-year starter at free safety, was a key member in ECU's 38-32 win over No. 18 Houston in the Conference USA Championship Game Saturday, Dec. 5 as he picked off a pair of passes, including one in the endzone with 42 seconds remaining. Eskridge earned an ESPN GameDay Final helmet sticker for his play against the Cougars, which also included 10 stops. The Shelby, N.C. native leads the Pirates with six interceptions, which ranks 13th in the NCAA, while ranking second on the squad in tackles (93) and pass breakups (7).
The two-time first-team All-Conference USA selection has started 46 of 53 career games tallying 354 tackles (192 solo), which ranks ninth all-time at ECU. He has intercepted 11 career passes and ranks among the NCAA career active leaders in total tackles (fifth), assisted tackles (ninth), solo tackles (t-10th), interception return yards (t-11th) and interceptions (t-13th).
Harris, who became the second Pirate in three years to be named C-USA Special Teams Player-of-the-Year following Chris Johnson in 2007, has posted 2,002 all-purpose yards, the second-highest single-season total in school history and scored 14 touchdowns. Included are 932 yards on 34 kickoff returns (27.4 avg.) and he became the first player in ECU and C-USA history to return three kickoffs for touchdowns in one season.
The Stone Mountain, Ga. native earned All C-USA honors as a wide receiver (first-team) and kick returner (second-team) and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 C-USA Championship Game back on Dec. 5. He has caught 79 passes for 914 yards with six scores while rushing for 149 yards on 31 carries with five touchdowns. Harris currently owns the school record for career receptions (163) while ranking second with 1,814 receiving yards.