Here's a look at the East Carolina Pirates, Vanderbilt's opponent in the upcoming Nashville Super Regional.
2021 record/RPI: 44-15 / 13
Coach: Cliff Godwin (258-128-1, 7th year, all at ECU)
Rank in polls: 11th (DI), 14th (Coaches), 17th (BA)
Rank in conference: 20-8 (won American Athletic regular-season title)
Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2019 (won Greenville Regional)
East Carolina cruised to an American Athletic conference title, ending the season with a three-game lead over Tulane. The Pirates then beat Norfolk State (8-5), Charlotte (7-5) and Maryland (9-6) in a three-game regional run to get here.
With that, the Pirates have won back-to-back regionals and advance to a super regional for the sixth time. But this stage has always been tricky: The Pirates have fallen at this stage all six times they've been here, and have the dubious distinction of having the most NCAA tournament trips (30) without a College World Series appearance.
The Pirates had a team on-base mark of .392, slugged 75 home runs and stole 60 bases in 91 tries. On Wednesday, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin talked about how ECU puts pressure on teams by being aggressive and certainly, the Pirates' 266 walks to 407 strikeouts demonstrate how tough a club to pitch to this squad is. (By comparison, VU walked 262 times and fanned 539.)
Connor Norby, a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist, had a 56-game on-base streak snapped earlier in the season. He led the nation in hits and total bases coming into NCAA tournament play and is one of four ECU hitters who were named first- or second-team all-conference. Norby leads the team in average, on-base and slugging percentage, home runs (15), RBIs (51) and steals (18), is tied for the doubles lead (15) and has walked (32) as many times as he's struck out.
Thomas Francisco, Josh Moylan and Zach Agnos are the three other players who earned all-league honors, and each got on base at over a .400 clip. Agnos and Seth Caddell (13 and 14, respectively) ranked just behind Norby in home runs.
Entering 2021, Gavin Williams had made just five starts in 38 appearances, and his first three appearances this year came out of the bullpen. Then on March 19, Williams went into the rotation against Illinois State, pitched five scoreless innings, and his season took off. Counting that appearance, Williams went between five and seven innings and didn't allow more than two runs in any of his next 10 appearances until Charlotte touched him for five runs (all earned) in last weekend's NCAA tournament start. He went between 88-109 pitches in those starts.
Freshman lefty Carson Whisenhunt started the season strong, but began to struggle more as the season wore on. Whisenhunt didn't go more than five innings in his last eight starts (though he went exactly five on three occasions), however, he had at least two more strikeouts than walks in each of those outings as well. His highs in pitches were 90 and 95 and he averaged 75 pitches per outing.
Jake Kuchmaner started the regions-clinching game vs. Maryland, tossing 56 pithes across two innings while allowing one run. The lefty was a first-team preseason All-AAC pick but never got on track in 2021 and hasn't thrown more than two innings since April 30.
However, ECU has a deep and talented bullpen led by rubber-armed Cam Colmore, who pitched in 30 of the team's 59 games and threw 30 or more pitches 15 times. He and fellow sixth-year senior Matt Bridges have combined for 182 career appearances.
Bridges picked up two saves and a win in the Greenville Regional. However, it's second-year player C.J. Mahue who leads the team in saves.
There's also Tyler Smith, who has a career 20-6 record and started 13 games this season. Smith threw 1 2/3 innings in the regional and allowed two runs in that one appearance.
