Former East Carolina All-American RHP and current member of the Cleveland Guardians organization Gavin Williams made his Major League Baseball debut Wednesday night, earning the start on the mound in the Guardians' 7-6 victory over the Oakland Athletics at Progressive Field.

He is the second Pirate to earn the call to the Majors in the last calendar year after Alec Burleson debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals back on Sept. 8, 2022.

Williams threw 5.2 innings in the contest, striking out four batters and allowing four runs on four hits before exiting the game with the score tied at four.

Playing for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers before his promotion to the big leagues, Williams tallied 61 strikeouts in 46 innings while compiling a 2.93 earned run average. He was drafted by Cleveland with the 23rd overall pick in the 2021 MLB First Year Player Draft – the second-highest selection in program history.

Williams represents the first consensus All-America selection in program history and is one of four players to earn inclusion on six All-America Teams. He, along with teammate Connor Norby, was named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes Award during the 2021 season. Williams notched 200 strikeouts in 149.1 career innings and held opponents to a .201 batting average while tallying six double-digit strikeout efforts. In three-plus seasons in the Purple and Gold, he helped East Carolina to 148 wins, three American Athletic Conference championships (2018 tournament, 2019 and 2021 regular season), three NCAA Tournament national seeds (No. 12/2018, No. 10/2019, No. 13/2021) and a pair of NCAA Regional championships (2019 and 2021).