GREENVILLE, N.C. – Thirty-four home games at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium, including the 12th-Annual Keith LeClair Classic, highlight the 2015 East Carolina baseball schedule announced Wednesday morning by first-year head coach Cliff Godwin.
The 2015 slate features 11 games against six teams that earned a bid to the 2014 NCAA Regionals, 28 against squads with 30-plus wins and six that finished ranked in the national polls.
ECU will play 24 of its first 33 games at Clark-LeClair Stadium including its first two American Athletic Conference series (Memphis and Tulane) and will also stay in state of North Carolina for 33 of its first 34 contests.
“We are really excited about our 2015 schedule,” Godwin said. “We will be challenged early and often with quality opponents filling our schedule from the beginning to the end. It will be a very competitive schedule for our team and our guys are very excited about getting started.”
The season kicks off on Friday, Feb. 13 at home against College World Series participant and national runner-up Virginia in a three-game tilt. The Pirates and Cavaliers renew their home-and-home series that started in 2010.
Sandwiched between a pair of midweek games against Old Dominion (Feb. 20/road and Feb. 25/home), ECU will host its annual Keith LeClair Classic, which pits the Pirates against St. John’s (Feb. 20), Michigan (Feb. 21) and Liberty (Feb. 22).
The following weekend, the Pirates will participate in the third annual USA Baseball-Irish Classic in Cary, N.C. at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. ECU is one of eight teams that will play in the three-day tournament and are joined by host Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Iowa, NC State, Penn State, Richmond and Seattle. The Pirates will square off against the Irish (Feb. 27), Wolfpack (Feb. 28) and Spiders (Feb. 29) – all in the main stadium of the four-field complex.
ECU’s non-conference schedule continues with road contests at NC State (Mar. 3), Elon (Mar. 13-15), UNC Wilmington (Mar. 24) and Campbell (Apr. 7), while playing host to Monmouth (Mar. 6-8), Campbell (Mar. 10), UNC Greensboro (Mar. 11), Princeton (Mar. 17-18), Virginia Commonwealth (Mar. 20-22), High Point (Mar. 25), UNC Wilmington (Apr. 14), NC State (Apr. 21), Duke (Apr. 22) and Elon (May 12).
The 2015 season marks ECU baseball’s first year in the American Conference and will host Memphis (Mar. 27-29), Tulane (Apr. 2-4), UCF (Apr. 24-26) and Connecticut (May 1-3). The Pirates will hit the road for weekend tilts against USF (Apr. 10-12), UConn (Apr. 17-19), Houston (May 8-10) and Cincinnati (May 14-16).
ECU and UConn will square-off six times this season, as each American Conference baseball team will play a home-and-home series with their regional opponent.
The 2015 American Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Clearwater, Fla. from May 19-24 with the winner automatically receiving a bid to the NCAA Regionals.
East Carolina returns 16 letterwinners including 2014 All-Conference USA Freshman Team selections Bryce Harman and Charlie Yorgen, as well as 2013 All C-USA performers David Lucroy and Travis Watkins.
Also stepping onto the diamond are 13 newcomers (four junior college transfers, eight true freshmen and one sophomore) to go along with three redshirts from a year ago.
2015 East Carolina Schedule (PDF)
