No. 9 seed Texas to face No. 8 seed East Carolina in Greenville Super Regional

The No. 9 seed Texas Longhorns have officially made their last appearance at UFCU Disch-Falk Field this season after the No. 8 seed East Carolina Pirates beat the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 13-4 on Monday to win the Greenville Regional at Clark-Leclair Stadium.

The win for the Pirates marked the seventh regional win in school history, with all seven coming since 2001, to set up the first Greenville Super Regional starting on Friday.

East Carolina is 26-9 in the friendly confines of Lewis Field, which opened in 2005 with a capacity of 5,000 and is considered one of the best college baseball facilities in the country.

East Carolina baseball

Ranked as the No. 12 team nationally in WarrenNolan.com’s live RPI, East Carolina will enter the Greenville Super Regional with a 44-19 overall record. Left fielder Lane Hoover leads the Pirates with a .343 batting average and center fielder Bryson Worrell paces East Carolina with 18 home runs. The host team boasts a batting average of .284 and has 71 home runs on the season.

On the mound, the Pirates have a team ERA of 4.05 and a WHIP of 1.27 with opponents batting .242. Left-hander CJ Mayhue is the No. 1 starter with a 5-1 record, 2.82 ERA, and .196 opponent batting average, setting up a strength-on-strength matchup against a Texas team that hits left-handers well. Reliever Carter Spivey (8-0, 2.43 ERA) has five saves and recently became the first reliever to win AAC Pitcher of the Year honors.

Like the Longhorns, the Pirates win with excellent defense, ranking third nationally with a fielding percentage of .983 having only committed 38 errors this season.

The best-of-three series will mark the first meetings between the two programs as East Carolina pursues its first-ever berth in the College World Series. On Tuesday, Friday’s game time was set for 11 a.m. Central on ESPN2 with Saturday’s game at the same time on the same channel.