Baseball Gameday: at LeClair Classic

GREENVILLE, N.C. - For the second time in three seasons, the Indiana baseball program will travel to Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium for the LeClair Classic. The four-team event is hosted by East Carolona and will feature the Hoosiers, Georgetown and Long Beach State.

Indiana and host East Carolina will play the second game on the opening day of the event, with Georgetown scheduled for Saturday and Long Beach State on Sunday.

Gameday Info
Friday, March 3, 2023
IU: Ben Seiler, LHP, Sr.+
ECU: Trey Yesavage, RHP, So.

Live Video: es.pn/3ERiblN
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Saturday, March 4, 2023
IU: Luke Sinnard, RHP, So.
GU: Andrew Williams, LHP, So.

Live Video: None
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Sunday, March 5, 2023
IU: Seti Manase, RHP, Jr.
LBSU: Nico Zeglin, RHP, Gr.

Live Video: None
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Quick Hitters

Indiana has history with all three teams at the LeClair Classic , an even it participated in during the 2020 season. Indiana's first opponent, East Carolina, was first on the IU schedule in 1959. MORE ON PAGE 3
Indiana placed four student-athletes on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team in 2022 and redshirt-junior Matthew Ellis was named third-team All-B1G by the conference coaches.
Freshman Carter Mathison and redshirt-senior Matthew Ellis each hit home runs on opening weekend to bring their career totals to 20 and 19, respectively, for the Cream and Crimson.
Mathison has played in 67 career games and has 65 career RBIs over that span to go along with his 20 home runs. MORE ON PAGE 7
Senior Hunter Jessee carries a 23-game reached base streak into the week, which dates back to the 2022 season, and marks a career long for the left-handed hitter. MORE ON PAGE 7
Jessee posted his second career multi home run game versus Miami (Ohio) with a first inning home run to right field and a seventh inning shot to the opposite field.
Indiana's pitching staff posted a program record 600 strikeouts in 2022. That mark ranks No. 2 in Big Ten history, behind Iowa's 602 punchouts in 2022, as well. MORE ON PAGE 8
Head coach Jeff Mercer became the eighth IU skipper to reach 100 victories in the cream and crimson with a series finale win at Auburn on February 19, 2023. FULL BIO ON PAGE 17

Scouting the Opponent

East Carolina with a 5-2 record coming off a loss at Duke on Tuesday. The Pirates swept a two-game weekend series with North Carolina prior to dropping the midweek contest at Duke.
As a team, ECU is hitting .273 with 27 of 66 hits going for extra bases. Jacob Starling leads the team with a .400 average, 11 RBIs and a .531 on-base percentage. The pitching staff owns a 5.20 ERA, with Zach Root's 1.17 ERA leading all qualifying pitchers. He has eight strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings of work and owns a 1-0 record with one save on the season.
Georgetown is 6-2 overall with a 4-1 record at neutral sites and a 2-1 mark in true road games. Four every day starters are hitting above .300 and their two starters that have started two games each own ERAs under 2.00.
Long Beach State enters with a 4-3 overall record and a team ERA of 4.16. All three starting rotation pitchers own an ERA under 3.00, while Eddie Saldivar and Rocco Peppi each own a .423 average to lead the squad..

Series Notes

Indiana is 6-4 all-time against the 2023 LeClair Classic field, with a 2-1 record versus East Carolina, 1-0 mark against Georgetown and a 3-3 ledger versus Long Beach State.
This will be the second time that Indiana has compete at the LeClair Classic, the last during the 2020 season when it posted a 2-1 record. At the 2020 event, Indiana beat East Carolina, 11-5, to open the event and then took a 5-1 decision over High Point in the second game. Ole Miss defeated IU, 9-5, in the finale for both teams.
The only meeting between Indiana and Georgetown came on Feb. 21, 2009, in Tampa, Florida in the second game of that season.
The Hoosiers and Dirtbags met in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015. IU traveled to California in 2014, before LBSU returned the trip in May 2015 during IU's Big Ten open weekend.
The first meeting even with East Carolina came in a season-opening tournament at Camp Lejeune in 1959, where the Hoosiers won a 2-1 game over the Pirates.

Indiana University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Matthew Ellis

Hunter Jessee

Seti Manase

Carter Mathison

Ben Seiler

Luke Sinnard

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