East Carolina baseball players Carter Cunningham and Trey Yesavage were named to the CSC Academic All-America First Team by the College Sports Communicators on Tuesday, July 2. They are the first Pirate student-athletes to receive this prestigious honor since Matt Bridges earned third-team accolades in 2021. Under head coach Cliff Godwin, who himself is a two-time Academic All-American, Cunningham and Yesavage are the sixth and seventh players to be recognized during his ten-year tenure.
Cunningham, who earned his MBA in May and finished his career with a 3.875 cumulative GPA, was the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist. He led the Pirates in several categories, including batting average (.367), runs scored (77), hits (92), and home runs (17). Nationally, he ranked 12th in runs scored and 19th in hits. He was also one of three East Carolina players to start all 63 games this season and was named AAC Player of the Week twice.
Yesavage, a communication major with a 3.509 cumulative GPA, was recently named a consensus First Team All-American by several organizations. His junior campaign earned him recognition as the AAC Pitcher of the Year and a semifinalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy. He ranked second nationally in WHIP (0.87) and fewest hits allowed per nine innings (4.73), third in earned run average (2.03), fifth in strikeouts (145) and victories (11), and ninth in strikeouts per nine innings (13.98).
