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Senior Nights and Days for Pirates

By Al Myatt
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East Carolina officially celebrated Senior Night with a 7-0 win over Elon at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Tuesday night.

There have been numerous senior afternoons and evenings for the Pirates throughout the 2015 season because Hunter Allen and Reid Love have played such big roles for a team that is challenging for the American Athletic Conference regular season championship as it starts a three-game league series at Cincinnati at 6 tonight.

Senior Night seems to be a recurring theme, kind of like the routine for Bill Murray's character in the movie, Groundhog Day, but ECU coach Cliff Godwin isn't looking to escape the routine of contributions from his dynamic upperclass duo.

"They're our heart beat," Godwin said. "They're our two captains. What they've done on the field obviously has been huge. Hunter is hitting in the leadoff spot for us and has been our spark plug, played a tremendous shortstop. Reid Love is one of the best two-way guys in the country. He's hitting in the three hole for us and pitching pretty much every big game that we need to win. He comes up and gets a big start for us.

"There's obviously that part, the baseball stuff. The other stuff is just being leaders by example. They're not vocal guys but they go about their business the right way on and off the field. They're tremendous ambassadors for East Carolina baseball and East Carolina University."

Allen leads ECU with a .345 average. Love is hitting .303 with three homers and 18 RBIs.

Love pitched eight innings Saturday in a 4-1 win at Houston, the only ECU victory in a series that was bookended by a 10-1 Cougars win on Friday and an 11-1 Houston triumph in seven innings on Sunday. The Pirates are a game behind the first-place Cougars in the AAC standings.

"He just went out there and did what Reid has done for his past four or five starts," Godwin said. "He gave us eight innings and gave up one run. He just allowed us to score enough to win. The guys have a lot of confidence when he's pitching. They feel like they're going to win when he's on the mound. That's because of the way he's pitched this year."

Love, a left-hander, is 6-3 with a 2.69 earned run average. He picked up four saves when the Pirates needed him in a closer's role earlier this season. He has 62 strikeouts in 73 and two-thirds innings with nine walks.

ECU is 33-20 overall and 12-9 in the AAC in Godwin's first season as head coach at his alma mater.

Love went 5-3 with a 3.02 ERA as a junior for the Pirates in 2014 after transferring from St. Johns River State College in Florida.

"The biggest thing I think has changed from last year to this year for him is his mentality," Godwin said of Love. "He's enjoying it more. He's enjoying the competition more instead of putting so much pressure on himself."

The approach going into tonight is pretty much as it has been for the Pirates for 53 previous games.

"We need to win," said the ECU skipper during a layover in Washington, DC, early Wednesday afternoon. "The mindset is to win (tonight) and then we'll worry about Friday when it gets here. Reid's going to pitch (tonight). He's going to be on short rest but we wanted to make sure he'd be available for the conference tournament to be able to pitch game one or game two."

The AAC Tournament gets under way Tuesday in Clearwater, FL.

Godwin plans to start Evan Kruczynski on Friday and Jacob Wolfe on Saturday.

Designated hitter Luke Lowery has pushed his home run total for the season to 12 with a recent surge. He's the team RBI leader with 43. Godwin adjusted Lowery's stance going into the season but said the recent productivity has not resulted from any tweaks.

"Home run hitters go in streaks," Godwin said. "He had a little while where he was hitting more doubles and singles than he was home runs. He's hit three home runs I guess in four games. Baseball is a game of ups and downs. He has found it right now but we haven't done anything to his swing."

The players have completed their academic responsibilities for the time being.

"It's the best time of the year for a baseball player because it's all baseball," Godwin said. "You don't have to worry about studying for exams like they did last week or getting papers done. It's just baseball. We're on a long road trip here, going to Cincinnati and then going to the conference tournament. They don't have any worries about academics. ... Sometimes, I think that can affect 'em because it is a big deal in our program to make sure you do well in school."

The Bearcats are 15-36 overall and 6-15 in the AAC. They've lost six straight, their last win coming on May 2 when they clinched a series with Memphis by virtue of a 5-4 triumph in 12 innings.

Cincinnati is 10-11 at home on the synthetic surface of Marge Schott Stadium, where the Pirates were scheduled to work out on Wednesday evening. ECU holds an 8-3-1 lead in the series from the time when both programs competed in Conference USA.

The Bearcats have Senior Night planned for Friday's 6 p.m. game. Pitcher Ryan Atkinson is UC's lone senior. Former UC great and retiring major league performer Kevin Youkilis, a World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox, will be honored by the retirement of his No. 36 jersey before a noon matchup with the Pirates on Saturday.

"I'm sure it will be a big crowd for that," Godwin said. "They're going to play hard. They're not packing in the season by any stretch of the matter. We need to play our best baseball. They've won two series at home this year with Memphis and (Central Florida)."

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PAGE UPDATED 05/14/15 02:19 PM.