Zach Root joins ECU weekend rotation, gives Pirates dangerous 1-2 punch

In 2023, lefthander Zach Root began his collegiate career and became an important part of the East Carolina pitching staff. From bullpen arm to midweek starter to getting the nod in an elimination game in the Charlottesville Regional, Root truly did it all as a freshman at ECU.

Now, Root is set to join the weekend rotation for the Pirates. Joining Trey Yesavage, Root has the potential to help this become one of the best 1-2 punches the ECU rotation has seen.

In the eyes of ECU head coach Cliff Godwin, Root has taken some noticeable jumps on and off the field during the offseason.

“Well, he’s just grown up so much,” Godwin said of Root at ECU’s media day on Monday. “He’s matured physically, he’s worked his tail off with coach Dennis Wilson in the weight room. He’s put on some good weight. He is talking to his teammates a lot more, just more sociable. I feel like we know him a lot better. He’s more intentful in his day-to-day preparation. Not that he was lazy, but guys in our program work really hard. So if you’re not working to that level, at times, people might not think that you’re working hard.

“And I think guys like Trey Yesavage and the junior class have just taken him under his wing. And just because he’s going to be the future of our program after this group here gets drafted or graduates. So he’s done a really good job of accepting some leadership qualities and continuing to build on that.”

As a freshman, Root appeared in 20 games with 13 starts, pitching to a 3-3 record with a 5.53 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. He logged 53.2 innings overall, tallying 54 strikeouts and 27 walks. What might have been his best outing of the year came in ECU’s final game, as Root started a win or go home game against Virginia in the Charlottesville Regional. There, he went 4.2 innings on 70 pitches, allowing one run on five hits and two walks. But his stuff was on from the start, and gave Pirates fans a ton of optimisim heading into his sophomore campaign.

While Yesavage and Root are two very different pitchers, they have one notable trait in common. They want the ball in those big moments. Yesavage earned that reputation as a bullpen arm himself as a freshman, and Root quickly did the same.

“Yeah, I think that was really the thing you noticed first about Zach, was that he’s certainly a guy that’s able to step up in those situations,” ECU pitching coach Austin Knight said. “Never really shied away from it. I think about, we brought him in to close out the game on Friday night against North Carolina last year. Of course on opening day, he’s the first guy out of the bullpen. So he kind of got thrown to the wolves a little bit there at the beginning, but he handled it.

“You start watching him, and the bigger the moment is, the better he is, the better his stuff is. Those are the things within a pitcher, the intangibles – those are the things that you look for in a great starting pitcher or anything like that.”

Root, Yesavage pushing each other at top of ECU rotation

ECU has had some dominant 1-2 punches in starting rotations in recent memory. In 2021, Gavin Williams and Carson Whisenhunt anchored the pitching staff and dominated nearly every time they took the mound. Now Williams is coming off of an impressive rookie MLB season and Whisenhunt could get his shot in the big leagues this year. That 2021 team fell in a Super Regional against Vanderbilt, who had a 1-2 punch of their own in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter.

Back in 2019, Jake Agnos and Jake Kuchmaner had great years leading ECU’s rotation. Both pitched to a sub-3.00 ERA, and Kuchmaner tossed a perfect game on the road against Maryland during the season.

Now, as the season inches closer, Yesavage and Root appear to be fighting for the Friday night role. When it’s all said and done, one will pitch on Friday and the other on Saturday. But for Root, it remains a competition and he has his eyes on eventually being in the Friday night role at ECU.

“I feel like, obviously, one of us is going to be Friday and the other Saturday,” said Root. “It’s just whoever is pitching better is going to be on Friday. So whoever is on Friday is going to be trying to stay at their best so the guy on Saturday doesn’t overtake them, basically. And then the guy on Saturday is working to be on Friday.”

As they lead the rotation alongside one another, Yesavage and Root know that their paths have been similar thus far. Starting their careers as primarily bullpen arms and then transitioning into frontline starting pitchers is not easy to do. And with a year of being a starter under his belt, Yesavage, a 2024 Preseason All-American and the 2024 Preseason AAC Pitcher of the Year, will be right there by Root’s side.

“I told him I’ll be there whenever he needs me, has any questions, I’m there,” Yesavage said. “But we’ve really challenged each other in practice. We throw together every single day. Just trying to be the best role model that I can be for him, because he’s going to be really good for us and help us win a lot of games.”

ECU’s season begins on Friday, February 16, kicking off a three-game series against Rider.