Elon Baseball to Travel to #17 East Carolina on Wednesday

ELON, N.C. – Fresh off of a three-game sweep in which it allowed just two runs, the Elon University baseball team will hit the road for a midweek bout with the #17 East Carolina Pirates at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14.

GAME NOTES

PITCHING MATCHUP
Elon: Jr. RH Ryan Conroy (0-1, 3.24)
ECU: TBD

THE SERIES
Elon will be facing East Carolina for the 80th time on Wednesday. The Pirates hold a 47-31-1 advantage in the series after a pair of victories last year. The two programs first met in 1940 with the maroon and gold picking up a 7-1 victory. Elon is 3-16 in 19 known games at ECU.

ABOUT EAST CAROLINA
The Pirates enter this week’s meeting with a ranking among the nation’s top 25 and are off to a 12-3 start to the season. ECU has won five in a row entering its two midweek games.

As a team, ECU is hitting .299 and has scored 101 runs (6.7 per games). The Pirates have 22 doubles, two triples and 12 homers and have been successful on 20 of their 26 stolen base attempts this season. Leading the offense is Jake Washer who is hitting .459 with a team-best .676 slugging percentage and .553 on-base percentage. Spencer Brickhouse leads the squad with four homers and 15 RBI.

The Pirates are holding opponents to a .219 batting average and have struck out 120 hitters in 135.0 innings. ECU has allowed just 48 runs (3.2 per game) through its first 15 games of the season.

HEAD COACH MIKE KENNEDY
Now in his 22nd season as the head coach at his alma mater, Mike Kennedy (’91) is the winningest coach in program history. He has compiled a career record of 686-532-3 and has led his program to five regular season titles, three conference tournament championships and seven NCAA postseason appearances.

RACKING UP THE K’S
Through the first 16 games of the season, the Elon pitching staff has put up some impressive strikeout totals. Three pitchers have eclipsed the 10-K mark in individual outings as sophomore George Kirby (11 Ks on opening day,11 at Georgia Southern and 10 vs. Appalachian State), Robbie Welhaf (12 in a relief outing against Radford) and Kyle Brnovich (11 vs. Marshall and 12 vs. Appalachian State) have all accomplished the feat.

As a staff on the year, the Phoenix has recorded 180 strikeouts on the year, an average of 11.3 per game.

ELON’S IRONMAN
Elon junior shortstop Ryne Ogren has been a mainstay in the Phoenix lineup since his arrival on campus. The Devon, Pa., native has now started 105 consecutive games dating back to his freshman campaign. Ogren has started all 16 games this year, started all 56 games a year ago and started the final 33 contests in 2016. The last time Ogren did not appear in Elon’s starting lineup was March 22, 2016 against High Point.

MOUNTAINEERS CAN’T FIND THEIR WAY HOME
In Elon’s three-game series sweep of Appalachian State, the Phoenix pitching staff allowed just two runs in 27.0 innings. The Mountaineers failed to score over the first 24.2 innings of the series before scoring twice in the seventh inning of game three.

ELON MATCHES ALL-TIME BEST MARK
With its two runs allowed in the three games with Appalachian State, Elon matched a program record for runs allowed in a three-game series. Elon also allowed just two runs in a sweep of Presbyterian in 1992, however, that series featured a pair of seven-inning games.

2 – vs. Appalachian State (March 9-10, 2018)
2 – at Presbyterian (March 7-8, 1992)
3 – vs. James Madison (March 31-April 2, 2017)
3 – vs. Shippensburg (Feb. 26-27, 1994)
4 – vs. UMass (March 3-5, 2017)
4 – 4 at UNC Asheville (Mary 11-12, 2002)
4 – vs. Mars Hill (March 16-17, 1996)
4 – at Wingate (April 3-4, 1993)

BACK-TO-BACK SHUTOUTS
For the first time since 2011, Elon posted back-to-back shutouts as the Phoenix defeated Appalachian State by 10-0 and 5-0 margins. In 2011, Elon defeated Wake Forest 5-0 on the road before besting Davidson 10-0 at Latham Park.

It also marked the first back-to-back shutouts of the same opponent since 8-0 and 10-0 decisions over Wofford in 2006.

ON DECK
The Phoenix will return to Latham Park for its next four outings beginning with a 4 p.m game against Rider on Friday, March 16. That will be game one of a three-game weekend series.