ECU baseball lands players on All-AAC teams

CLEARWATER, Fla. (ECU ATHLETICS) – A program single-season record 11 East Carolina student-athletes have been named to the All-American Athletic Conference Teams according to an announcement by the league Monday afternoon.

ECU captured its fourth-straight AAC regular season title with a road sweep of South Florida last weekend and secured its fifth-straight 40-win campaign.

The Pirates had 10 players selected to the all-conference teams a season ago which was the club’s record until this year.

Sophomore RHP Trey Yesavage, junior outfielder Carter Cunningham and sophomore designated hitter Jacob Jenkins-Cowart were named to the first team.

Yesavage leads the league in runs allowed (22) while ranking second in earned run average (2.95), opposing batting average (.202) and earned runs allowed (21) as well as third in strikeouts (90). He fanned a career-high 13 batters at Houston March 31 and has tallied double-digit strikeouts in five appearances with six quality starts. Cunningham ranks second on the squad in batting average (.319) and on base percentage (.440) while posting a current .947 OPS. Jenkins-Cowart is hitting .296 overall with 11 doubles, nine home runs, 40 RBI and 95 total bases. Despite missing six games due to injury in the middle of conference play, he has tallied 14 multi-hit efforts.

Seven additional ECU players in Josh Grosz (P), Carter Spivey (P), Justin Wilcoxen (C), Josh Moylan (1B), Jacob Starling (2B), Joey Berini (SS) and Luke Nowak (OF) garnered second-team honors. Zach Root (P) was also named to the all-freshman team.

With the three first-team selections, the Pirates have had at least one player named to a first team in 19-straight years (2004-present, none in 2020) and a total of 28 different first-team picks since joining The American in 2015.

East Carolina returns to action Tuesday at the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship as the tournament’s No. 1 seed. The Pirates are slated to face No. 8 seed South Florida 47 minutes after the game between fourth-seeded UCF and No. 5 seed Cincinnati. That contest is scheduled for a 9 a.m. start at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.

2023 All-American Athletic Conference Teams and Awards

Player of the Year

Brock Rodden, Jr., 2B, Wichita State

Pitcher of the Year

Dalton Fowler, Sr., Memphis

Newcomer Position Player of the Year

Justin Murray, Jr., 1B, Houston

Newcomer Pitcher of the Year

Grant Adler, Jr., Wichita State

Defensive Player of the Year

Eric Snow, SS, South Florida

Coach of the Year

Loren Hibbs, Wichita State

First-Team All-Conference

P – Trey Yesavage, So., East Carolina*

P – Dalton Fowler, Sr., Memphis*

P – Grant Adler, Jr., Wichita State

P – Clark Candiotti, Jr., Wichita State

RP – Dalton Kendrick, Jr., Memphis

C – Ben McCabe, R-Sr., UCF

1B – Justin Murray, Jr., Houston

2B – Brock Rodden, Jr., Wichita State*

SS – Eric Snow, Fr., South Florida*

3B – Zach Arnold, Jr., Houston

OF – Carter Cunningham, Jr., East Carolina

OF – Bobby Boser, So., South Florida

OF – Drew Brutcher, Jr., South Florida

OF – Chuck Ingram, Jr., Wichita State

DH – Andrew Sundean, So., UCF

DH – Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, So., East Carolina

UTL – Payton Tolle, So., Wichita State

Second-Team All-Conference

P – Josh Grosz, Jr., East Carolina

P – Carter Spivey, Sr., East Carolina

P – Jack Cebert, So., South Florida

P – Ricky Castro, Gr., Tulane

RP – Jace Miner, So., Wichita State

C – Justin Wilcoxen, Jr., East Carolina

1B – Josh Moylan, Jr., East Carolina

2B – Jacob Starling, Jr., East Carolina

SS – Joey Berini, Jr., East Carolina

3B – Logan Kohler, Jr., Memphis

OF – Luke Nowak, So., East Carolina

OF – Teo Banks, So., Tulane

OF – Kyte McDonald, Jr., Wichita State

UTL – Kerrington Cross, R-So., Cincinnati

Freshman All-Conference

Drew Faurot, INF, UCF*

Cameron Leiter, P, UCF*

Chase Horst, P, Cincinnati

Griffin Hugus, P/UTL, Cincinnati

Zach Root, P, East Carolina*

Luke Ellis, P, Memphis

JR Jimerson, OF, Memphis

Rafael Betancourt, P, South Florida

Eric Snow, SS, South Florida*

Jack Little, INF, Wichita State

Nate Snead, P, Wichita State

*  - unanimous selection

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