Twelve East Carolina football players were named to preseason All-American Athletic Conference teams by Athlon Sports and Phil Steele Magazine this week.
The Pirates had five offensive players, five defensive players and two special teams players earn preseason recognition ahead of the 2024 season.
Running back Rahjai Harris, defensive linemen D’Anta Johnson and Chad Stephens and cornerback Shavon Revel were named first-team preseason selections.
Revel, one of three returning players who earned all-conference honors in 2023 as voted on by the league’s head coaches, was also selected as a preseason All-American as a fourth-teamer by Phil Steele Magazine.
The Pirates begin their season on Saturday, Aug. 31 at home against Norfolk State.
ECU baseball
Three East Carolina baseball players were named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-Atlantic Region teams.
Pitcher Trey Yesavage landed on the first team, while senior infielder Carter Cunningham and junior reliever Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman earned second-team honors, the ABCA announced.
Yesavage made an all-region team for the second time in as many seasons after landing on the Atlantic Region second team in 2023.
Yesavage is expected to be selected in the top half of the first round of the MLB Draft after putting together a standout junior season. He was named the AAC Pitcher of the Year and a semifinalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy.
After the Super Regional round of the NCAA postseason, Yesavage sits second nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (4.73), third in both earned run average (2.03) and WHIP (0.87), fifth in strikeouts (145) and victories (11) and ninth in strikeouts per nine innings (13.98).
He also tied the ECU single-season record for strikeouts, matching Jake Agnos’ 145 in 2019.
Cunningham, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist and two-time AAC player of the week, led the Pirates in batting average (.367), runs scored (77), hits (92) and home runs (17). He was also one of three Pirates to start all 63 games this season.
Lunsford-Shenkman, also selected a finalist for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, was named to the All-AAC first team.
