Pirates' hopes riding on "every pitch"

By Brian Bailey
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

This 2014 college baseball season is down to a precious few games for Billy Godwin and his East Carolina Pirates.

Godwin’s squad is 27-18 overall and 13-8 in Conference USA after taking two of three in their weekend series at Florida Atlantic. There are just two non-conference games left on the schedule. The Pirates play at North Carolina Tuesday night and then host High Point in a couple of weeks.

There are nine more league games on the slate. The Pirates host Florida International and then go to Southern Miss before returning home to take on Texas-San Antonio.

Rice leads the league standings with three weeks to go and can still be caught. An added bonus for the Pirates is that they have the ‘tie-breaker’ on the Owls by virtue of that series win earlier this season.

All three of the league teams left on the Pirate schedule are right in the thick of the conference race.

“We just have to win pitches, just win every pitch,” said Godwin. “We’ve been doing a pretty good job of that. We know that every game is important and we know that we don’t have many mulligans left. We need to win as many games as we can down the stretch and stay in the short term. The short term will lead to the long term.”

First up is North Carolina. The Pirates beat the Tar Heels 3-2 a week ago in Greenville. Bad weather is in the forecast and if the game can’t be played Tuesday night, it might not be played at all.

“We haven’t talked about that,” explained Godwin. “When we went through this with UNC-Wilmington, the only day we could find that we could play would have been this coming Wednesday, but we go into the exams then. So the days are getting limited.”

Former Pirate coach Gary Overton was my guest on my radio show Monday night on Pirate Radio 1250 and 930. Overton spent four years on the NCAA selection committee and knows firsthand that the Pirates have a lot of work to do to make this year’s NCAA baseball tournament.

“I would say the Pirates would have to get their RPI around 45,” said Overton. The Pirates are in the low 60’s currently, but could move up with another win over North Carolina and a trio of series wins still on the table.

There is still time. Overton told me that there really wasn’t a magic number. Wins down the stretch will all be important. Two non-conference wins and the three series victories would mean an 8-3 finish, which is certainly possible.

The question is, would it be enough?

The Pirates got a treat while getting ready for their return flight from Florida. NFL Hall of Famer and former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin was flying out from a nearby gate.

Irvin stopped and posed for a picture with members of the Pirate baseball team. He even took one with just himself and Godwin.

“It’s the greatest team in the history of mankind,” Godwin joked. The coach is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. “Michael was great. I felt like a ten-year-old going up to him. He got a picture with our team and we all enjoyed it. It was pretty neat. Now I just need Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith!”

Maybe that star power will rub off for this Pirate team down the home stretch.

BB

E-mail Brian Bailey.