East Carolina freshman pitcher Sthil Sowers has been named Conference USA Pitcher-of-the-Week league officials announced Monday afternoon. He is the first Pirate pitcher to receive the weekly honor in 2008 and the third overall player to receive Player-of-the-Week accolades joining Ryan Wood (Mar. 10) and Corey Kemp (Apr. 7) who were named Hitters-of-the-Week.

Sowers tossed his first career complete game in a 6-1 win over No. 27 UNC Wilmington on April 22, earning his fourth win of the season. The freshman scattered six hits and held the Seahawks scoreless through 8.2 innings until giving up a solo home run in the ninth inning. Sowers did not walk a batter, fanned five and did not allow a runner past second until Mark Carver’s home run.

Victor Gomez, a freshman from Marshall, capped off the week by going 11-for-21 at the plate with two doubles, two home runs and eight RBI. Gomez, who has a .370 overall batting average (second on the team), hit his eighth home run of the season, a grand slam in game two of the Thundering Herd’s weekend series at UAB. Gomez also went deep during a 4-for-5 day in a win at Ohio last Wednesday. The freshman added a double and four runs scored during the Herd’s 17-12 win over the Bobcats. Gomez had four multiple-hit games last week and is slugging at a.616 clip with 30 runs batted in on the season.

The Pirates (32-13, 8-7 C-USA) will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to UNC-Wilmington for its only midweek game of the week. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.