WILLIAMSBURG, VA. – Baseball is in the air as the Tribe will begin the 2020 season this weekend with a three-game series at No. 21 East Carolina. The Green and Gold will get things started Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in Greenville, N.C. and the teams will face off again Saturday at 2:00 p.m. before wrapping up the three-game set Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Hear what head coach
Brian Murphy has to say about the 2020 squad
here.
William & Mary will look to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 and win at least 30 games for the seventh time in the last nine years. Last season's Tribe team won 33 ballgames finishing third in the CAA and reaching the conference tournament semifinals.
The Tribe is led by four seniors that earned CAA preseason honors. Pitcher
Chris Farrell, outfielder
Brandon Raquet, and catcher
Matthew Trehub were all named to the All-CAA preseason team while starting pitcher
Wade Strain earned an honorable mention nod.
Farrell and Strain will be rejoined by nine returning pitchers to make up an experienced W&M staff. Senior
Nick Butts, juniors
Jacob Haney,
Justin Pearson, and
Randy Prosperi, and sophomore
Zach Tsakounis make up the core of the Tribe's deep unit of arms.
In the field, the Tribe returns a dozen players from 2019 including six starters. Sophomores
Jack Cone and
Matt Thomas will join Raquet in the outfield and junior ironman second baseman
Matt McDermott will look to start 50 games for the third straight season. Trehub will see most of the action behind the plate and sophomore
Hunter Hart gives the Tribe flexibility with the ability to play corner outfield and first base.
The Tribe will be tested out of the gate facing an ECU team that won 47 ballgames and earned a trip to the Super Regionals a year ago. The Pirates were a dominant 26-8 in Greenville last season and enter 2020 ranked 21 by D1 Baseball.
"We're excited to kick off the season this weekend," said head coach
Brian Murphy. ECU is a great opponent and it should be a good atmosphere. It'll be a great jumping-off point for our development as a team.
The Tribe has met ECU just three times heading into this weekend's matchup. ECU owns a 2-1 advantage in the young series, winning a 2016 neutral site matchup in Charlottesville in the most recent meeting. The Green and Gold have split a pair of games at Lewis Field at Clark-Leclair Stadium.
