ELON, N.C. – Elon University baseball welcomes No. 8 East Carolina for two games at Latham Park this Friday and Saturday, March 26-27. The first game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start and the second will begin at 2 p.m.

COVERAGE
Live stats will be available and both games will be streamed to the Elon Phoenix YouTube channel. Fans can also listen to Friday's game on the Elon Sports Network from Learfield IMG College with the pregame show set to start 15 minutes before first pitch. The radio broadcast can be heard at elonphoenix.com/live and on the TuneIn app.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Elon	No. 8 East Carolina
Fr. RH Ben Simon (0-2, 4.20 ERA)	Jr. RH Gavin Williams (1-0, 1.32 ERA)
R-Fr. RH Spencer Bauer (0-1, 3.38 ERA)	Jr. LH Jake Kuchmaner (2-0, 4.50 ERA)

THE SERIES
- ECU holds a 53-31-1 record in the all-time series that dates back to 1940.
- Elon and ECU met for a home-and-home series during the shortened 2020 season.
- The Phoenix hosted the then-No. 17 Pirates for the first game on Feb. 25, with the visitors getting the 7-2 decision. The maroon and gold battled back from a 3-0 deficit to get to within a run, but ECU pulled away late with a four-run top of the seventh.
- Starter Ian Evans fell to 0-2 after allowing three runs on seven hits with one strikeout through 6.0 innings. Garrett Stonehouse finished 2-for-3 at the plate with a double, run and RBI. Matt Oldham hit 1-for-3 and drove in a run, Jack Roberts also turned in a 1-for-3 effort, and J.P. Sponseller collected Elon's other hit and scored a run in a 1-for-4 outing.
- In the second game in Greenville, Elon jumped out to an early 3-0 lead at Clark-LeClair Stadium but could not hold off the hosts as the then-No. 19 Pirates plated six runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings en route to a 7-4 final.
- Brian Edgington tallied five strikeouts in a 5.0 inning start and held ECU to one run on seven hits and one walk. Adam Spurlin finished 2-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs, and Oldham and Tyler Stanley but hit 1-fof-3 and a scored once with Oldham adding a double. Joe Satterfield hit a solo home run in a 1-for-4 effort, Alex Iadisernia batted 1-for-5 with an RBI, and Sponeller singled in his only at bat as a pinch hitter.

SCOUTING THE PIRATES
- The Pirates are off to a 16-4 start to the season and were ranked as the unanimous No. 8 team in the latest national rankings by Baseball America, USA Today, the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association, (NCBWA), D1Baseball.com, and Collegiate Baseball.
- In the most recent RPI list, which included games played through March 11, ECU was listed fifth in the country.
- The Pirates swept Illinois State last weekend in Greenville, N.C. and are coming off an 8-1 loss at No. 24 North Carolina this past Tuesday.
- The team was picked as the preseason favorites in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll for the third-straight year with Thomas Francisco, Jake Kuchmaner, Connor Norby and Bryson Worrell all earning preseason all-conference team honors.
- Worrell and Kuchmaner were also named Preseason All-Americans by the NCBWA while freshman C.J. Mayhue was selected as one of 45 players to the initial watch list for the 16th Annual NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year Award.
- As a team, the Pirates are hitting .287 with a .457 slugging percentage and a .372 on-base percentage.
- Connor Norby owns a .440 average to lead ECU at the plate. Also hitting over .300 are Thomas Francisco (.349), Ben Newton (.342) and Josh Moylan (.339).
- ECU's arms own a collective 3.49 ERA through 183.0 innings and are holding opposing batters to a .222 clip.
- The Pirates are expected to go with right-hander Gavin Williams on Friday and lefty Jake Kuchmaner on Saturday. Williams has made one start in four appearances and has allowed three runs, two of them earned, through 13.2 innings. Kuchmaner will make his sixth start of the season and has been tagged for 14 runs, 12 earned, over 24.0 innings.
- The Pirates rank 11th in the nation with an .800 win/loss percentage and are 15th in home runs (27) and total hits (198).

ABOUT THE PHOENIX
- Elon was scheduled to play three conference games at James Madison this weekend but the series was canceled due to COVID-19 testing protocols within the Dukes program.
- The Phoenix own a collective .253 batting average with a .380 slugging percentage and a .345 on-base percentage.
- Griffin Arnone is 4-for-8 and Luke Coker is 1-for-2 to lead the team with a pair of .500 averages. Alex Iadisernia is next with a .393 clip, Cole Reynolds is hitting .293, and Anthony Galason follows at .278.
- Willie Havens has a team-high four home runs, Iadisernia has the most hits with 22, and Reynolds has driven in a team-best 10 runs.
- Reynolds is tied for the CAA lead in sacrifice flies with three and Joe Sprake is tied atop the league rankings with two saves.
- Elon's pitchers have a combined 4.77 ERA through 122.2 innings with opposing batters hitting .293 against them.
- The Phoenix will go with Ben Simon for the first game and Spencer Bauer for the second.

ELON FALLS JUST SHORT TO WAKE FOREST
- Nick Cicci drove in a pair of late runs to pull Elon University baseball to within two, but the team's comeback bid fell just short as the Phoenix (5-9) dropped its midweek game to Wake Forest 4-2 on Tuesday.
- The Demon Deacons manufactured all of their runs on three home runs to left field. Wake Forest opened the scoring in the top of the first as Lucas Costello hit a solo home run to left. After a scoreless second and third inning, the Deacs tacked on two more runs in the fourth as Shane Muntz singled up the middle before Adam Cecere connected on an 0-1 pitch for the 3-0 lead. The visitors then produced their final run of the game in the fifth as Pierce Bennett took a 3-1 offering over the wall in left for the team's third long ball of the game.
- In the home half of the seventh, Jeske entered as a pinch hitter for Sponsller and reached first on a hit back up the middle. Haskin then doubled to the wall in right to set up runners in scoring position with one out. Cicci pinch hit for Pico and sent a 2-1 pitch to the wall in left to score both Jeske and Haskin.
- In the bottom of the ninth, Stonehouse drew a leadoff walk before Wake Forest retired Jack Roberts and Haskin. Reynolds then pinch hit for Carlos Marte and drew a five-pitch walk. Elon then brought in Connor Offshack to pinch run and brought in Coker as the potential winning run. However, Wake Forest's Eric Adler got Coker to ground out to second to bring the game to a close.

UP NEXT
Elon will travel to Wilmington, N.C. next weekend, April 2-4 for a CAA series at UNCW.