The East Carolina Pirates have one final chance to save face for the 2017 baseball season.
The most highly anticipated baseball season in ECU history turned into perhaps the program’s most disappointing effort.
There is still time.
We all know about ‘March Madness.’ ‘May Madness’ is baseball’s version, in which league tournaments decide champions and automatic berths in the NCAA tournament.
The Pirates earned the 8th seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, which begins today. The team that was picked first in the preseason finished dead last and will face No. 1 seed Central Florida this evening at 7 p.m.
Still, one has to think that ECU has both the talent and the disposition to make a run in Clearwater.
So many times the postseason tournament means much more to those on the outside looking in as far as at-large berths are concerned.
While head coach Cliff Godwin was resting pitching ace Evan Kruczynski and number two starter Trey Benton, Central Florida was going full throttle in its regular-season-ending series with rival South Florida.
The Knights and Bulls battled for a championship. The Pirates rested, but still took out Connecticut on the season’s final day to dash the Huskies’ hopes for a title.
There is still time.
UCF is in the NCAA tournament. USF is as well. Houston should go. UConn may still have some work to do. Memphis, Cincinnati and Tulane join ECU as teams that have to win the tournament to make it into the NCAAs.
The Pirates’ plan is clear. They need a great effort out of Kruczynski in game one. Then Kruz would come back on Sunday for the championship game — if ECU gets that far.
There is still time.
“It will be a tough workload,” said Godwin last week before his team headed to UConn to close out the regular season. “We’ll rest Kruz and then we’ll get set to ride him in the tournament.”
If the tournament does come down to which team wants it more, then you have to like ECU’s chances.
To a man, this deep, experienced team is downright embarrassed about how the season has gone.
This is their shot at redemption.
It won’t be easy. Several players who have struggled in 2017 will have to turn it up a notch or two for the Pirates to have a chance.
The AAC Baseball Championship event is two, separate, double-elimination tournaments leading to a single game finale. No. 4 seed USF and 5th seed Tulane make up the other half of the Pirates’ bracket and will square off today at 3:30 p.m. matchup. That contest and the evening matchup between ECU and UCF will be nationally televised over the CBS Sports Network.
Weather has advanced the pairings in the other bracket from Wednesday to today. Second seed Houston and No. 7 Memphis will launch the tourney at 9 a.m. with No. 3 UConn facing 7th seed Cincinnati at noon.
The Pirates have played Jekyll and Hyde in this tournament in the last two years.
ECU won the championship trophy in 2015 and then came to Clearwater last year and went two and out.
It’s redemption’s final shot.
There is still time.
BB
VIEW ECU’S 2017 BASEBALL SCHEDULE
View Complete AAC Tournament Schedule on Championship Central
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