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BASEBALL |
Pirates want no more kisses |
East
Carolina had plenty of chances to
take the deciding game in its
American Athletic Conference series
with first-place Cincinnati last
weekend. When you mix in Sunday's
noon start with a 94-minute rain
delay, add in a 4 p.m. travel curfew
and end up with a 3-3 tie, it leaves
you thinking about the what ifs.
...
More from
Brian Bailey...
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GENERAL |
Pirates gathering to back Varner |
When
former East Carolina golfer
Harold Varner III tees off on
No. 10 at the Quail Hollow Club
in Charlotte at 1 p.m. today for
the Wells Fargo Pro-Am, he will
have a group of followers
wearing purple shirts. ...
More from
Al Myatt...
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING |
Star juco QB joins 2016 class |
Almost
three months after signing day, East
Carolina has addressed a pressing
need that arose unexpectedly with
Kurt Benkert's decision to transfer
to Virginia. Gardner Minshew of
national champion Northwest
Mississippi Community College will
enroll at ECU and contend with
Philip Nelson for the starting
quarterback position. ...
Thumbnail
sketches...
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BASEBALL |
Cincinnati rallies for tie |
GREENVILLE — Cincinnati scored
two runs in the top of the
eighth inning for a 3-3 tie with
host East Carolina on Sunday.
The contest was not completed
because of the American Athletic
Conference's deadline for
finishing Sunday games.
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More... |
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Next: ECU at UConn | Friday, 3
pm |
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BASEBALL |
Pirates hold off Bearcats, even
series |
GREENVILLE
— East Carolina ended an
offensive lull and evened its
American Athletic Conference
series against visiting
Cincinnati with a 6-4 win
Saturday. ECU had scored just
eight runs in its previous six
games. The Pirates took a 6-0
lead into the top of the ninth
Saturday but the league-leading
Bearcats created some anxiety
for a Clark-LeClair Stadium
crowd of 2,915 before Joe Ingle
recorded his ninth save.
...
Story, pictures & audio... |
Pictured:
ECU junior
Luke Bolka
slides into
home after a
Charlie
Yorgen
ground out
to the right
side of the
infield in
the third
inning of
the Pirates'
6-4 AAC win
over
Cincinnati
on Saturday
at
Clark-LeClair
Stadium. (W.A.
Myatt photo) |
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BASEBALL |
Cincinnati tops Pirates, 3-0 |
GREENVILLE
— Cincinnati extended its lead
in the American Athletic
Conference with a 3-0 win over
East Carolina at Clark-LeClair
Stadium Friday night in the
opener of a three-game series.
Tulane's 10-6 loss to Houston
put the Bearcats 1.5 games ahead
of the second-place Green Wave.
Andrew Zellner (6-2) and A.J.
Kullman, who got his second
save, combined for the shutout
of the Pirates.
...
Story, pictures & audio... |
Pictured:
The view
from 'The
Jungle'
during ECU's
Friday
evening loss
to American
Athletic
Conference
opponent
Cincinnati.
(W.A. Myatt
photo) |
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BASEBALL |
Exams and tests for Pirates |
The
term student-athlete is
descriptive of the players in
the East Carolina baseball
program and will be especially
applicable over the coming days
as spring semester exams
coincide with a home series
against Cincinnati
...
More from Al Myatt...
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By
Al Myatt
©2016 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
Connecticut's J.O.
Christian Field is sort of the Wrigley Field of yesteryear among
college baseball facilities. There are no lights so the series
opener for East Carolina and the Huskies is at 3 p.m. today.
Weather may be a factor
in the absence of illumination since night games might be
uncomfortably chilly during much of the college baseball season in
Storrs, CT.
You can check out the park here.
There are often vast
differences between hitters' performances in day vs. night
comparisons.
Former Pirates signee
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels is hitting .424 in day games
thus far this season. He's at .268 for night games.
The Pittsburgh Pirates
have a .325 average for day games in 2016 but after the sun sets
they're at .256. The Boston Red Sox are hitting . 288 at night and
.268 during the day.
In major league baseball
overall, the average for day and night is .249 but there is some
variation between leagues. The American League is hitting .239 for
day games and .248 at night. National Leaguers hit .258 in the
daytime and .249 at night.
A study presented in
Minneapolis in 2011 said sleep types had an impact on the situation
with "morning types" hitting better during the day and "evening
types" doing better nocturnally.
"I always felt like I
saw the ball better at night," said ECU coach Cliff Godwin. "I think
it's more of an individual preference. I always thought the white
ball and the dark contrast helped me out. ... The general consensus
is that you see it better in the daylight."
The Pirates may take
after their coach if wins and losses are an indication.
ECU is 7-2 in Friday
games which are usually played at night. The Pirates are 4-5 in
Sunday games, generally in the afternoon.
No doubt, ECU Friday
starter Evan Kruczynski is a factor in the Pirates' success in
series openers.
Baseball in
renovation plans
The $55 million
renovation of the south side of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, ECU's
football facility, also will include some improvements for baseball.
"We need a bigger area
for our hitters," Godwin said. "We have a small area hitting indoors
right now. It's just tough for us to get all our hitters in there at
one time.
"Normally when it's a
rainy day we have to split our hitters up. Half will hit and half
will go lift and then we'll flip-flop. After that the pitchers will
come in and throw. It's really not an area big enough for all of
those guys to be there at one time. We're looking to have a bigger
indoor hitting facility and turn the indoor hitting area that we
have now into two bullpen mounds, kind of like a pitching indoor
area, a place where our guys can go in there and throw bullpens and
get their work in at the same time the hitters are getting their
hitting in."
The new indoor hitting
facility will be where the outdoor cages are now.
"It will probably take
out the opposing bullpen," Godwin said. "We'll probably take out a
little bit of that grass area that is down the first base side,
close to the stadium, and make that their bullpen area."
Huskies feature
southpaws
ECU (27-16-1, 8-6-1)
leads the American Athletic Conference in hitting with a .291 team
average. Pirates freshman Dwanya Williams-Sutton leads the league in
hitting (.354) and on-base percentage (.440).
Lefties Anthony Kay and
Tim Cate are averaging 8.84 and 11.48 strikeouts per game for the
Huskies (24-19, 8-6), respectively.
Opponents are hitting
.211 against Kay and .169 vs. Cate.
The Pirates saw both in
taking two of three
in a tight series in Greenville on April 23-24.
"They're two of the best
in the conference," Godwin said. "They pitched very well against us,
both of them did, two weeks ago."
ECU
went 1-1-1 against
Cincinnati last weekend.
"Against Cincinnati, we
talked about we needed to get more leadoff guys on base," Godwin
said. "Against UConn, we're really going to have to make sure we can
take away Anthony Kay's fastball. His fastball was really good
against us. We just weren't able to catch up to it. ... (Tim) Cate,
the other lefty, we need to get guys on base. He doesn't do a great
job, because he's a freshman, of controlling the running game. If we
can get guys on base, that will kind of distract him some and help
us put more pressure on him."
The Pirates are aware of
the hitting ability of UConn's Joe Deroche-Duffin, who leads the AAC
in home runs with 12 and RBIs with 40.
ECU also has league
leaders in saves (Joe Ingle, 9) and pitching starts (Jacob Wolfe,
12).
Coach drove home last
year
Godwin drove back to
Greenville after the series at UConn last season. He plans to fly
back with the team this year.
"Unless something pops
up with somebody where I have to run out," he said. "Last year, I
went in and visited Denny Brady, a freshman on our team, on that
Monday."
Freshman hurlers
abound
Brady is now one of a
fleet of freshmen pitchers who are cutting their collegiate teeth
for the Pirates, No. 36 in the current NCAA ratings index.
"The freshmen have been
thrown into the fire," Godwin said. "Sam Lanier was out there Sunday
(3-3
tie with Cincinnati) with the game on the line
and really did an unbelievable job, a Houdini act, to get out of
that jam. We should have won. We ended up tying but he held his
poise and stayed in there even after we didn't make the play over
there in the four hole. He kept going and got us out of it, assured
us of a tie. Matt Bridges pitched well this past weekend. Chris
Holba has done a good job. Denny Brady did a good job at Memphis,
coming in. A lot of those freshmen are definitely continuing to get
better each and every day."
ECU will lose senior
right-hander Jimmy Boyd from the current weekend rotation.
Kruczynski might be drafted.
"Evan is going to have
some decisions to make," Godwin said. "The one thing I can say
without revealing Evan's personal situation is that Evan loves
playing baseball at East Carolina. Evan is not going to sign for
just anything, so I think we have a good chance of getting Evan
back. At the end of the day, it depends on what the scouts value
Evan at monetarily. That's a little ways away so we'll worry about
that once the draft rolls around."
The intent is to prepare
the freshmen for a bigger role in the future.
"That's the goal every
year," Godwin said. "I would have thought Chris Holba and Denny
Brady as we recruited them would have bigger roles than what they
have now but sometimes it just takes freshmen, it takes them a year
to really come into their own just because it is different. The
hitters are better. The competition is better. The pressure that
baserunners put on them, that kind of pressure wasn't put on them in
high school.
"They doubt themselves
at times. The most confident freshmen doubt themselves at times.
I've seen it year-in and year-out where even a guy that maybe hasn't
pitched much at all — where they come back their sophomore year they
look like a different guy. It's the same person and their stuff's
not better but all of a sudden they start believing that they can
get people out. We're preparing them each and every day to try to
have bigger roles next year."
'Kruz's evolution'
Kruczynski is a prime
example of improvement, compiling an 18.00 earned run average in
three appearances as a freshman in 2014. Kruczynski has pitched 77
and two-thirds innings this season. He is 5-1 with a league-leading
1.51 ERA. He has walked 14 and struck out 64.
"The guys make the joke
on the team now that have seen Kruz's evolution," Godwin said. "His
freshman year, they were like, 'I can't believe this guy is on our
team. How did they recruit this guy?' Now look at where he is —
tremendous credit to Evan Kruczynski and the way he prepares
himself.
"I tell people all the
time that what he does between starts with his preparation is as
good as any pitcher that I've ever been around and that's why he has
success. ... It's physical and mental preparation. The day after,
he's going to get a great lift in and he's going to get some running
in, which is pretty difficult. When I say running, it's not a jog.
It's him really getting after it, probably almost making himself
throw up. The next day he's going to get another lift in and
probably take the day off from throwing. Also, the arm care stuff he
does with Zac Womack (trainer) each and every day to make his arm
feel good is a factor. As far as his bullpen sessions and his flat
grounds and his long tossing, just the relentless little details
that he follows each and every week are part of his preparation.
"I don't know if it was
Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan who said the easiest day for a pitcher
should be the day he pitches but that's the way Kruczynski prepares
himself. He crushes himself starting on Saturday to get ready for
next Friday. Then Friday he feels like he's as prepared as anybody
in the country. He goes out there and has success."
AAC travel deadline
The AAC deadline limited
the Bearcats and Pirates on Sunday and led to the tie. No inning can
begin after 4 p.m. on get-away day.
"Any time you're within
driving distance, you don't have that but when you're dealing with
flights and dealing with student-athletes having to get back on
Monday, that comes into play," Godwin said. "It comes into play even
at times you don't see it. That's why a lot of times Sunday games
are moved up earlier. I think we played Houston at 11 o'clock in the
morning. That game with Cincinnati was scheduled for (1 p.m.) and we
moved it up to noon because of the four o'clock travel curfew. We
had a (94 minute) rain delay and still were able to get eight
innings in. We almost got nine in but we didn't. It's just the way
it is."
Second series with
UConn
The eight teams in the
AAC for baseball play one another a series of three games each and
have a second series with the nearest league member for a total of
24 regular-season league games.
"They're technically not
our closest," Godwin said of UConn. "UCF is (closest) but UCF and
South Florida match up."
Mileage to Storrs from
Greenville is listed at 642.8 miles via I-95. It's 641.8 miles to
Orlando.
General recruiting
outlook
Godwin isn't planning on
a return trip down I-95 this year but he is stoked about ECU's
incoming class.
"It's going awesome," he
said of recruiting. "We've really done a great job in my opinion.
Jeff Palumbo leads the recruiting efforts but also Dan Roszel
(pitching coach) helps out. Myself, we're all out there evaluating
players and getting players excited about East Carolina University,
which in my opinion, is not difficult to do.
" ... The class we have
coming in is really good. We're having kids that are going to turn
down a lot of money to come to East Carolina. We're still not out of
the dark yet but we have a lot of kids that really value the college
experience in this class and who are academically strong.
"They want to get a
great education from East Carolina. They want to get a great
baseball experience and just the college experience in general. I
think a lot of people think when kids turn down the draft it's all
about education. Well, that's a big piece to the puzzle but it's not
everything. It's the college experience. It's playing in front of
3,500 to 5,000 Pirate fans at East Carolina. It's going to football
games and being able to do all of those things that you'll never be
able to do if you sign a professional contract.
"We're lucky that we've
got a great group of guys that have committed to helping ECU get to
Omaha (site of the College World Series). Our class is really good."