Top 25 Poll

By John Manuel
April 9, 2002

GREENVILLE, N.C.--With a 3-0 lead, Houston righthander Brad Sullivan didn't necessarily need to pitch carefully against East Carolina. He went right after the first batter in the sixth inning Friday night, striking out Jed Sorensen on four pitches.

The next hitter, though, didn't get the same aggressive approach.

When Sullivan started Darryl Lawhorn with a breaking ball, it wasn't a surprise. In fact, Lawhorn wasn't surprised when he saw a curve on a 3-2 count.

"I think I saw two or three fastballs all night," he said. "I got a 3-1 fastball in the first but it was a ball so I took a walk. My second at-bat I got an inside fastball. Then I got one in my last at-bat."

That would be the one in which he worked back from an 0-2 count and drilled a two-run single to center, giving the Pirates the 5-4 lead they would carry to the game's end.

Lawhorn hasn't seen many fastballs the last few weeks. Word gets around when you're leading Conference USA in home runs and RBIs as a freshman, and Houston heard the word before last weekend's series. That didn't stop East Carolina's offensive leader from reaching base in his first 10 plate appearances in the series. He finished 7-for-10 with five RBIs for the set, including 4-for-4 in Saturday's 11-4 victory, as the Pirates won two of three and re-entered the Top 25 at No. 20.

"What can I tell you? He's just a natural hitter," said ECU assistant coach Kevin McMullen, who has been running the team's offense due to coach Keith LeClair's battle with Lou Gehrig's disease. "We knew early on that he was beyond his years mentally in terms of preparation and hitting."

Lawhorn's offense--he was batting .424-13-40 and even ranks second on the team with eight stolen bases in nine tries--has carried the Pirates, who lost their top four home run hitters off last year's 47-win squad. The rest of the team has hit just 22 homers, and no one else had more than 24 RBIs.

Lawhorn would have been one of the last choices to have a breakout season at the plate. He lists the Braves' Greg Maddux as his most admired athlete, probably because the 6-foot-2, 165-pounder was recruited primarily as a pitcher. He hit .377 as a high school senior but hit just two home runs as a prep player. Meanwhile, he won 21 games last year between his American Legion team and Wilmington's New Hanover High, which produced Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon.

"I thought I could hit a little, but not with this kind of power," said Lawhorn, who has not pitched at all this season. "I came here mostly to pitch, but the coaches gave me a chance to hit in the fall, and then they gave me a chance to start. I thought I'd be hitting seventh or eighth, but then the games started and I was always hitting third or fourth."

Lawhorn says his approach is pretty simple: He's patient. He laughed when asked if he ascribes to the walk-first, ask questions later approach espoused by people like Athletics general manager Billy Beane.

"When runners are in scoring position I want to be more aggressive and get a pitch I can drive," he said. "I don't think that's original. If guys are going to nibble, though, you just have to be patient."

With 18 walks and a .503 on-base percentage, Lawhorn has shown he can be patient when he needs to. And like some of Beane's A's, Lawhorn's offense is ahead of his defense. He's made 11 errors at first base, a position he rarely played before arriving at East Carolina.

"He's had some lapses over there, but he's not really familiar with the position," McMullen said. "Down the road he probably will be our third baseman, and he's athletic enough that we could try him in the outfield.

"His bat will play somewhere. He's a pretty special hitter."