East Carolina has picked up a pledge from one of its top transfer portal targets, adding Loyola Marymount left-hander Ryan Towers. Towers visited East Carolina and Texas Tech the last two weeks, ultimately deciding on transferring to join the Pirates’ program over the Red Raiders.
Towers, a 6-foot, 170-pound lefty, has two years of eligibility remaining. He’s expected to enroll this summer and compete for a spot in the rotation this fall. A native of Henderson, Nev., just outside of Las Vegas, Towers attended Liberty High School before spending the last three years at Loyola Marymount in California. After redshirting and developing his first two years in the program, Towers started every weekend for the Lions this past season, establishing career-highs in virtually every pitching category.
The left-hander finished the season 1-3 with a 4.91 ERA, striking out 50 against 29 walks in 51.1 innings. He allowed 53 hits, but just one home run. Most of his top outings came early in the season, before his workload started to build and his appearances were shorter. Towers struck out 10 over six shutout innings with just one hit allowed against Villanova on March 2. He also struck out seven against Dartmouth across four innings on March 14, and pitched six strong innings at Gonzaga on March 23.
In a previous interview with Hoist The Colours, Towers said ECU pitching coach Austin Knight’s plan for him to take the next step in his development was one the two really saw eye to eye on during his visit earlier this month.
“I think this year I had some success, but it wasn’t really for the reason that I think that I can have success,” Towers said. “I think this was the first year that I’ve really been able to have good stuff, which carried me a little bit. Because growing up my whole life, my dad, he played in the big leagues for a while, and he was never really a guy that threw very hard either. So the way I grew up always learning how to pitch was being able to establish your fastball in the zone, learn the changeup over the spin first, be able to mix in and out, up and down, change eye levels, and stuff like that.
“So I feel like that stuff that I already know how to execute, I think I’ll be really able to put the reps in, finally, to get back to doing that well on top of having the stuff develop a little more and continue to develop with Coach Knight. I think that’s the next step is being able to be a little more consistent in the zone and allow my stuff to play even more up, just being able to manipulate it how I want it.”
The left-hander becomes the second transfer portal commitment of the offseason for East Carolina, joining Old Dominion right-handed hitting infielder Alex Bouche. ECU also recently welcomed Georgia pitcher transfer Ethan Sutton on a visit and is still recruiting him.
East Carolina is inside of 70 days of kickoff, when the Pirates take on Norfolk State inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Aug. 31 to begin the sixth year of the Mike Houston era in Greenville. To count down the days to kickoff, we will be utilizing the Pirates’ football roster to help us, going in numerical order from the highest number on the roster to the lowest.
