LIVE UPDATES: ECU matches up with Cincinnati in elimination game
East Carolina’s baseball team looks to stave off elimination in the American Athletic Conference tournament when it takes on the Cincinnati Bearcats on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. ET in the first of two games inside BayCare Ballpark.
The Pirates fell in stunning fashion on Tuesday in the opening round of the AAC tournament. Top-seeded ECU led eighth-seeded USF, 9-3, entering the eighth inning, before allowing two in the eighth, and six in the ninth, as the Bulls took an 11-9 lead. Josh Moylan’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth tied it, but ECU ultimately fell, 12-11, in 11 innings, as Drew Brutcher’s RBI single proved to be the game-winner.
Cincinnati had a similar heartbreaking setback. Ryan Nicholson hit a two-run shot in the 4/5 game to tie UCF at 3-3 in the top of the ninth, before the Knights eventually won on a walk-off homer, 4-3, sending UC into the loser’s bracket.
The Bearcats have lost 12 straight games against ECU, including all six to the Pirates during the regular season. Garrett Harker, a right-hander, will start for Cincinnati. He’s 2-5 on the season with a 6.75 ERA, allowing 60 hits in 53 innings with 44 strikeouts against 31 walks. Harker has allowed eight homers and opponents are hitting .280 against him.
ECU used nine pitchers in the game against USF. Left-hander Zach Root, a freshman, will get the call for the Pirates on Wednesday to start with. Root is 3-2 with a 4.93 ERA. He’s started 10 games, allowing opponents to hit .241 against him with three homers given up. The lefty has struck out 42 and walked 25 in 42 innings.
If Pirate fans have been waiting to bet on East Carolina’s season opener at the Big House in Michigan, they can now do so. According to Caesar’s Sportsbook and DraftKings, ECU has opened as a 36.5-point underdog ahead of the season-opening Sept. 2 matchup in Ann Arbor against the Michigan Wolverines.
Kickoff time is expected to be announced in the coming days. It will be the first-ever meeting between ECU and Michigan in football.
The Pirates are coming off back-to-back seven-win regular seasons under head coach Mike Houston, who’s entering his fifth year at ECU. But they have a ton of production to replace. Four-year starting quarterback Holton Ahlers has graduated, leaving a competition between Mason Garcia and Alex Flinn to become the next start. Back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher Keaton Mitchell has moved on to the NFL as well, as have 1,000-yard wide outs Isaiah Winstead and C.J. Johnson, and tight end Ryan Jones. The Pirates also have lost four offensive line starters.
Defensively, ECU returns almost its entire defensive front, but the starting linebackers and entire cornerback two-deep have moved on and have been replaced with newcomers via the transfer portal, or players that have been developing in the program.
“We’re going to go play our friggin’ tails off and have fun,” Houston said about the Michigan game on Hoist The Colours radio in early May. “That’s the way you go do it. You go have fun and play. It’ll be an exciting environment for our players. But they’re going to go up there and be focused. Those older guys that have been with us a few years, they’re going to go up there to win. Don’t think it’s just going to be all fun and games. They’re going to go up there with the mindset we’re going to win that football game, so have at it.”
On Michigan’s side, the Wolverines are returning most of their team from last year’s College Football Playoff run. Despite NFL overtures once again, Jim Harbaugh is back for his ninth season with Michigan. After a 2-4 campaign in 2020, Harbaugh’s Wolverines have reached the playoffs each of the last two years, ultimately losing in the opening round both times.
Michigan outscored opponents 40 to 16 last season on average and racked up 458.8 yards per game compared to giving up just 292.1 yards per contest. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy is back after enjoying a season where he threw for 2,719 yards, and 22 touchdowns against five picks. Running back Blake Corum, who rushed for 1,494 yards last season, also turned down a chance to turn pro and returns.
Linebacker Junior Colson is one of the nation’s top defensive players and a potential future first-round pick. He racked up a team-high 101 tackles a season ago, including six tackles for loss.
The Wolverines also added three four-star offensive line transfers, a four-star EDGE transfer in Coastal Carolina’s Josaiah Stewart and four-star Nebraska linebacker Ernest Hausmann.
