Pirates come back in opener
By
Al Myatt
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CLEARWATER, FL — East Carolina
baseball coach Cliff Godwin and Pirates assistant Jeff Palumbo used to
be on the staff at Central Florida, the Pirates' opening opponent in the
American Athletic Conference tournament at Bright House Field.
The Knights were a tough draw for
ECU, seeded No. 2 for the event as the regular season AAC runner-up to
Houston, even though the Knights were seeded seventh for the eight-team
tournament.
UCF was ranked No. 9 in early March
and split a series with then-No. 2 Florida.
The Knights started senior
right-hander Zach Rodgers, who was 10-0 coming into the 11 a.m. matchup
on Wednesday. The tournament location is less than two hours driving
time from the UCF campus.
The Pirates were down 3-1 going to
the bottom of the seventh and still trailed 3-2 entering the eighth.
Despite its accomplishments this season, ECU was 0-14 when trailing
after seven innings in 2015.
Despite that boatload of adversity,
the Pirates took a 4-3 victory, even after the first potential winning
run was tagged out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
Godwin had to get a possible ear
infection checked out later Wednesday so Palumbo pinch hit for a
postgame interview. The ECU assistant said Godwin had the condition
addressed medically and that it shouldn't be a factor as he performs his
responsibilities during the remainder of the week.
Pinch runner Parker Lamm was out at
home trying to score from second on a double off the right field fence
by Hunter Allen for the second out in the bottom of the ninth.
"We don't score the run with one out
and Charlie (Yorgen) falls behind in the count, 0-2," Palumbo said. "He
really just battled, They had him shaded just a little bit towards the
four hole there. Charlie was able to get a change-up that was a little
bit up there and stay on it just enough to bang the baseball up the
middle to score Hunter."
The Pirates got some running in as
Yorgen was tracked down and dog piled.
The outcome put the Pirates in a 7
p.m. game with third-seeded Tulane (34-21) tonight. There are two
four-team brackets in the tournament. It's double elimination through
the bracket finals on Saturday. The two bracket survivors meet Sunday at
noon for the tournament championship on ESPNU.
Palumbo recapped Godwin's remarks to
the team as the Pirates improved to 37-20, the program's most wins since
the 2011 club went 41-21.
"He's proud of them," Palumbo said.
"We don't play a ton of 11 o'clock games. It's a little bit unique for
the guys, especially in the middle of the week. It's not so much about
motivating them as just getting them going and getting their bodies
going. It's a little bit of a different heat here and trying to get them
prepared for those things and how to handle that. We told them that you
guys have earned everything you've accomplished this year and it's going
to have to be the same thing here. Whether you're the two or the one or
the eight, nobody cares, records are out the window. A few of the teams
here are really playing for their lives within their season. We have to
be ready to go out and compete. Nobody is going to give us anything."
The matchup with the Knights was a
case in point. UCF (31-26) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second
against Pirates ace Reid Love, who battled for eight innings with no
decision. Love allowed nine hits and three earned runs in eight-plus
innings while walking one and striking out nine.
ECU answered in the bottom of the
second with a solo homer to left by Travis Watkins, his third of the
season, to tie the score at 1.
The contest was deadlocked until
UCF's Dylan Moore had a two-run single in the top of the seventh for a
3-1 Knights lead.
Bryce Harman doubled down the right
field line for ECU to start the bottom of the seventh. A chop to the
right side by Eric Tyler got Harman to third and he scored on a
sacrifice fly by Garrett Brooks to draw the Pirates within 3-2.
Luke Lowery's triple and a sacrifice
fly by Watkins tied the score at 3 in the eighth.
ECU brought Joe Ingle to the mound
after Love surrendered a leadoff single in the ninth. The freshman
right-hander, who has six saves, picked up his first win.
Tyler was hit by a pitch to start the
bottom of the ninth. Lamm came in as his pinch runner. A sacrifice bunt
by Brooks moved Lamm to second. Allen doubled off the right field wall
but Erik Barber played the ricochet and started the sequence that
retired Lamm short of the plate.
ECU outhit the Knights 11-9 and
neither team committed an error. Allen went 3-for-5. Yorgen and Kirk
Morgan each had two hits.
The Pirates began preparing for
tonight's game shortly after the tournament opener in terms of hydration
and nutrition. Tourist time is over although the team did get to go to
the beach after arriving from the completion of the series at
Cincinnati.
"We monitored how long they were in
the sun and in the water," Palumbo said.
The Pirates have transitioned to
business mode and that means pregame meal at 3 p.m. today.
"We'll try to find a place to get
some swings in the morning," Palumbo said. "From three o'clock on, it
will be our traditional set up. We'll go through some meetings to get
the guys prepared for who they're going to face on the mound and Coach
(Dan) Roszel will take the pitchers and get them prepared. ... We'll get
prepared with infield and outfield practice."
NCAA announcement next
week
Projections show the Pirates in the
NCAA Tournament field.
"That's always in the back of your
mind," Palumbo said. "At the beginning of the season when we set our
goals and what we wanted to accomplish, an American Athletic Conference
championship was a huge piece of that and we have that opportunity this
week. We'll take that step (NCAAs), when we get to it. Hopefullly,
that's Monday. We'll find out where we're going to get an opportunity to
go compete.
"Winning a conference championship is
special. Getting a chance to put that ring on is something that these
guys have been working for. It's something that they're very, very
focused on. They want to win a championship. They came up a game short
in the regular season of our goal and it's something that Coach Godwin
reminded them about today. We had a goal in mind and we didn't
accomplish that in the regular season. The nice part is we've got a
tournament here to try and achieve that."
No. 22
Palumbo wears No. 22, one number less
than the No. 23 that Godwin wears to honor the memory of his former ECU
coach, Keith LeClair.
"That was the number that I wore in
college," said Palumbo, who had an outstanding career at George Mason.
He has worked on staffs at his alma
mater (2006-08), UCF (2009-11) and Virginia Commonwealth (2012-14).
"Since I got out of college, I said
'Let's keep it rolling,'" Palumbo said. "That's what I've worn at all my
stops so far. One year at VCU when I got there ... I never want to take
it away from a player. If I get to a spot and a player has it, I let
them finish out their career in it and then I'll go in if it's available
and take it."
Keys in AAC Tournament
Success in the league event involves
the Pirates playing to their potential.
"Really just playing our baseball,"
Palumbo said. "Today, obviously, Reid Love gave us a fantastic start on
the mound. ... We played very clean defense. We didn't get any clutch
hits in the first part of the game but late in the game we were able to
get some of those clutch hits.
"When it gets down to it, it's just
about playing consistent baseball. You get it going with the bats and
you kind of make a run deep into the tournament. Just being ourselves.
These guys have done that all year long through the ups and downs.
They're a very close-knit group. ... Play good, quality baseball. At the
end of the day, you've got to get good starts on the mound and conserve
some of that pitching because it is a long week.
"These guys throw strikes and play
good defense, we should be in good shape."
Godwin's contributions
There is a consensus surrounding the
program that Godwin has had a positive influence in his first season, a
contention validated earlier this week when he was named AAC Coach of
the Year in voting by his peers.
Palumbo has worked with first-year
coaches in programs on multiple occasions.
"Coach Godwin has brought to the guys
some freshness and a little bit of a positive new energy," Palumbo said.
"The players could probably attest to that more than I could. ... One
thing that I've noticed is that these guys have enjoyed coming up to the
field as much as any team I've coached in the last decade. They really
enjoy themselves. They enjoy being around each other. ... Every team is
enjoyable in their own way but it's not as enjoyable as this team has
been. You kind of fight some things and try to get guys to buy in to
what you're trying to emphasize with a new program.
"These guys that are here right now
in that locker room have bought in to Coach Godwin and really, really
embraced his philosophy and, most importantly, how he wants them to play
the game. In talking with people who have been around the program and
scouts that have seen the program over time, that's the one thing that
they continue to tell me is how hard our guys play, how much they get
after it and how consistent they are with their energy. That's the
biggest thing. ... We brought some new philosophies to the guys. Coach
Godwin has asked them to play a certain way. Once we got going in the
middle of the season, they started to see the positive effects of that,
their work ethic, how they've gone about it, how we kind of pushed them
to be tougher with our early season workouts. They've kind of embraced
that. Really, that's kind of helped them believe in themselves and what
we're trying to accomplish.
"It's like a snowball that's going
downhill. It's hard to stop. I think that's where we are right now.
Those guys are very, very excited. ... They're a close-knit group who
have bought in to what Coach has asked them to do. They've seen the good
things start to happen. They're hard to stop right now."
New talent enlisted
Godwin and his staff are playing
primarily with personnel they didn't recruit. They have adapted players
who were in the program to demanding standards, an area where Godwin was
impacted by LeClair's approach at the outset of his tenure with the
Pirates.
That will change next season with the
arrival of the first recruiting class in the Cliff Godwin era.
"We have a talented group of 18 guys
right now that will be coming in next year," said Palumbo, who serves as
recruiting coordinator as well as defensive coach for the infielders and
as offensive assistant in support of Godwin.
Some of ECU's signees are potential
draft choices.
"Our sport is different than any
other sport in that manner," Palumbo said. "We're trying to bring in the
most talented players that we can but a too-talented player is not going
to show up on your campus."
Former ECU recruit Mike Trout would
be an example.
"The draft is going on June 6-8 and
we have a number of guys, I think four or five within the class that are
legitimate draft candidates," Palumbo said. "We work with them and their
families, really on just educating them. We don't need to sell them. I
feel like East Carolina and the program we're building sells itself.
It's more about educating them on college and getting a fantastic
degree. The pro ball side of things seems very, very glamorous if you're
a 17- or 18-year old kid because they watch the big league games on TV
and they hear about the big league life. They don't always hear about
the steps those guys have taken to get there and how difficult that can
be.
"At the end of the day, bypassing an
education can be tough. We just try to educate them on what we're about,
what we have and what we're going to be able to provide them. ... We try
to educate them as much as we can on the process."
PAGE UPDATED
05/21/15 02:29 PM.
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