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News Nuggets, 05.11.04
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NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...

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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Suitors lining up to host ACC title game

AMELIA ISLAND, FL — The Atlantic Coast Conference has requested proposals from nine cities to host its football championship game, which begins in 2005.

Jacksonville, Charlotte, N.C., and Orlando, are considered among the top candidates. Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore and East Rutherford, N.J., are also being considered.

ACC commissioner John Swofford didn't rate the cities, other than to say Atlanta was a long shot because it hosts the Southeastern Conference title game.

"Atlanta is not realistic because the SEC is already there, and on the same weekend we would play our game," Swofford told the Florida Times-Union.

The commissioner said the league will make its decision in late summer or fall.

The league decided to create a title game after bringing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College into the league from the Big East Conference. Miami and Virginia Tech begin play in the upcoming season, while Boston College will start in the 2005 season, bringing the league to 12 teams.

On Wednesday, when the meetings adjourn, Swofford is expected to announce a new television contract for the league.

Ticket frenzy sells out ECU-State rematch

Win or lose its game at UNC Wilmington tonight, 5th-ranked East Carolina can count on a rousing reception when it hosts N.C. State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Kinston.

The Pirates and Wolfpack will play in front of a sold-out crowd for the second time this season when they face each other at historic Grainger Stadium, ECU's temporary home as construction work commences on a new stadium at the site of its campus home, Harrington Field.

ECU athletic department officials announced the sellout on Monday, noting that a limited number of tickets will be available at the gate for students with a valid ECU student identification card.

This season's first meeting between the Pirates and the 'Pack, on April 21 in Raleigh, also sold out prior to the opening of the gates. Over 2,100 people attended the game in which ECU defeated State, 6-3.

Of particular note to fans who may wish to arrive early, Pirate Radio 1250 AM announced last week that it will give away purple T-shirts to the first 1,250 fans at the ECU-NCSU game.

The station will begin its coverage of the game two hours prior to the first pitch at 5 p.m. Jeff Charles and Gary Overton will call the play-by-play action of the game itself, with the station's live feed being streamed over the Internet by Bonesville.net in partnership with Pirate Radio 1250.

Pirates four steps from  top rung of Collegiate Baseball ladder

East Carolina's weekend sweep at lightly-regarded Saint Louis was dominating enough to offset a home loss to UNC Wilmington earlier in the week and keep the Pirates inching towards the top of at least one national collegiate baseball poll.

ECU, which has won 22 of its last 23 games and a Conference USA-record 22 straight league contests, advanced a spot to No. 5 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper rankings while holding steady at No. 6 in the Baseball Weekly poll.

C-USA members Tulane and Southern Miss, future C-USA members Rice and Central Florida, and Carolinas schools South Carolina, North Carolina and Clemson also make appearances in one or both of this week's polls.

Rice, which will leave the Western Athletic Conference for C-USA in 2005-06, is the reigning College World Series champion.

The Pirates dispatched of the Billikens 15-5, 7-1 and 16-5 on consecutive days over the weekend after having their school and conference-record 19-game winning streak halted in its tracks at home last Tuesday by Colonial Athletic Association opponent UNC Wilmington, 15-5.

Appropriately enough, ECU will attempt to add fuel to its relentless climb up the national rankings ladder and extract some revenge at the same time when it plays the Seahawks tonight in Wilmington.

Following are the top 25 teams in the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls, with records through May 9 and previous rankings. The Baseball America poll is voted on by the publication's staff. The Collegiate Baseball poll, which includes each team's point total, is voted on by coaches, sports writers and sports information directors:

[Conference USA teams — present and future — and Carolinas teams in bold.]

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007