View from the East Friday, June 1, 2012 By Al Myatt

Pirates sail into Red Storm

By Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

For the East Carolina baseball team, it is as Yogi Berra once said, deja vu all over again. A matchup in the Chapel Hill regional today is a duplication of the Pirates' first game in the 2011 Charlottesville regional 364 days ago.

ECU (35-22-1) plays St. John's (37-21) at 11 a.m. this morning provided there are no storms to deal with other than the Red one from New York City. The game has already been bumped up a couple of hours from its initial 1 p.m. first pitch due to weather considerations.

The Pirates played coach Ed Blankmeyer's club twice at Virginia last year, taking a 2-0 loss in the first game and then sending the Storm back to the Big Apple with a 6-4 win on the third day of the regional.

"What are the chances?" said Pirates coach Billy Godwin. "You have 297 Division I baseball teams, then you have a field of 64 and you're playing the same opponent back-to-back years. That doesn't happen a whole lot."

In ECU's case, familiarity has bred a degree of respect for a program that has won seven Big East Conference championships and is making its 34th NCAA Tournament appearance.

St. John's has been to the College World Series six times. The last trip was in 1980 when the Red Storm was actually the Redmen. Wanting to eliminate a potential perception that might be offensive to native Americans, the Redmen morphed into their present mascot in 1994.

"We've got a lot of respect for them, their program and what they've accomplished," Godwin said. "We saw last year that they have a good club and it's going to be a tremendous challenge. They have good pitching. They have some tremendous athletes, guys who can run and present problems in different areas.

"They had a first-round draft choice last year (shortstop Joe Panik, 29th overall to the San Francisco Giants). ... They're a solid club."

The Red Storm is hitting .284 as a team. Their pitching staff has a 3.81 earned run average. Top sticks include senior Matt Wessinger with a .348 batting average, six home runs and 45 RBIs, junior Jeremy Baltz (.342, 7 HRs, 49 RBIs), junior Sean O'Hare (.333, 3 HRs, 40 RBIs) and sophomore Frank Schwindel (.318, 4 HRs, 29 RBIs).

St. John's is expected to start junior right-hander Kyle Hansen (4-5) who has 100 strikeouts in 86 1/3 innings. He's issued 26 walks and has a 3.44 earned run average.

"He's got a good arm," Godwin said. "He'll be up to 94 (mph). He's shown some good velocity. We saw him pitch a little bit last year against UVa. We know he's got a power arm."

The Pirates will counter with freshman right-hander Jeff Hoffman, who is from Latham, NY, just outside of Albany.

"Our thought is that Jeff has probably as good a stuff as anyone on our team," Godwin said. "He's pitched well for us every time we've put him out there. For us to win this thing, it's going to take more than one guy. We felt like he was throwing as well as anyone we had. It was a good matchup and that's why we made that decision. ... He's one of our better guys we feel, coming down the stretch here. He's a guy who can go out there and give us a quality start. We're excited about where he's at in his development."

Hoffman (3-1, 3.37 ERA) may be playing his first season at ECU but Godwin said the freshman label no longer applies.

"I told him this the other day," said the Pirate skipper. "There are no freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. We need competitors and that's what he's proven to be."

Playing in Chapel Hill isn't the same as hosting but it's a relatively short trip, especially for a team that is used to travel in Conference USA.

"It's a nice facility," said Godwin of Boshamer Stadium. "The surface is good. We're familiar with it, having played here."

ECU lost 1-0 in 10 innings at North Carolina on April 25. A game in Greenville with the Tar Heels on May 9 was rained out.

North Carolina plays Cornell following ECU's game in the double-elimination event.

The Tar Heels are the top seed among the four teams. ECU is the No. 2 seed and St. John's is No. 3.

Those numbers don't mean much to Godwin. Everybody is dangerous.

"At this time of year, you can put it all out the window," Godwin said. "It's just about who plays the best game, who executes the best. They're all going to be good. All of the teams at this point are going to pose some threat or they wouldn't be in the tournament."

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PAGE UPDATED 06/01/12 02:32 AM.