This was no April Fool’s…. the mustache is history for another year.
East Carolina’s baseball program wrapped up another successful “Mustache March” on Monday by hosting the big shave off.
The entire team got together to shave off the whiskers.
Before the shave the team handed out some honors. Alec Burleson got the best ‘stache’ award with his version that included the big mutton chops.
Turner Brown had the worst mustache for the 4th straight year. The awards were announced in gest, and everyone had a good time with the big shave-off.
It’s all for a great cause. The Pirates raised over ten thousand dollars for the ALS Association as a part of the ‘one dollar difference’ campaign. It was all to honor former ECU coach Keith LeClair, who lost his courageous battle with the disease back in 2006.
Story continues below Mustache March Photo Mosaic. Click any thumbnail for larger picture…
Memphis and Michigan both joined forces with Pirate baseball in the cause. The Tigers started last year, and then Michigan, led by former Pirate Erik Bakich as the Wolverines coach, followed this year.
“It certainly is the greatest of causes,” said Pirate coach Cliff Godwin, who played for Coach LeClair at ECU. “The guys really enjoy doing this as a team.
This is a Pirate team that has won nine games in a row. They are ranked as high as 11th in the polls this week.
Cliff Godwin said he certainly wasn’t superstitious and that he, the coaches and most of the players were certainly ready to get rid of the whiskers!
“Burleson says he’s going to keep his, but I told him he had to trim up his chops,” said Godwin.
Bryant Packard, who hit two grand slams over the weekend at South Florida, agreed that wasn’t superstitious at all, and that the ‘stache was gone.
“I’m not keeping mine,” said Packard. “I hate it.”
Next up for the Pirates is the rematch with Duke. The Blue Devils beat East Carolina 7-2 back on March 12th.
The Pirates have yet to name a starter for Duke. Godwin says we’ll see several arms in the game Wednesday.
“We’re not really worrying about avenging a loss,” said Godwin. “We just want to keep playing good baseball. We played well this past weekend and we continue to win games in different ways. That’s what good teams do.”
After the Duke game the Pirates hit the road for seven games. ECU will visit Houston for three, UNC-Wilmington midweek, No. 1 UCLA for three and then Elon midweek before hosting Connecticut on April 18th. The Huskies just made their debut in the national rankings this week.
Hopefully there’ll be a great crowd Wednesday night for the Blue Devils.
You may need a program though. You might not recognize these guys after the ‘big shave.’
BB
Leave a comment