East Carolina comes to Raleigh in must-win game for Wolfpack

The Pirates, meanwhile, are winners of six of their seven games since the Wolfpack came to down on April 14th. Over the last four games – all wins – East Carolina’s offense has found their groove and plated 52 runs, with double-digit outputs in each of those four games. This has propelled the Pirates into a tie for first place in the American while also boosting their RPI ranking to 28th, firmly putting ECU into the NCAA Regional field.

This has suddenly become a must-win game for NC State. With series remaining vs Miami, at Stanford, and vs North Carolina, as well as a midweek game against NC A&T. The Wolfpack have to finish 7-4 in those remaining 11 games (8 are at home), with one of those wins coming against the RPI #293 Aggies. Technically, that 6-4 mark against the remainder of the schedule could come in any combination, but for a Pack team that is just 3-5 in their last eight games, carrying some momentum into the coming weekend series against the Hurricanes would be nice. More importantly, a loss today would drop the Wolfpack’s RPI score by 40 points, potentially dropping the Pack into the 60’s in RPI ranking, a tenuous position for the team’s NCAA Regional hopes.

A depleted Wolfpack pitching staff will send rJR RHP Julien Peissel (0-1, 18.00 ERA, 4.0 IP, 12.5 BB%, 20.8 K%) to the mound to start the game. This will likely be a Johnny Wholestaff game for State. An also-depleted ECU pitching staff will counter with rSR LHP Nick Moran (1-0, 5.29 ERA, 17.0 IP, 10.6 BB%, 19.7 K%), in what figures to be a game featuring multiple pitching changes for the Pirates.