Cliff Godwin’s baseball program has been the true shining light over the last couple of years from the East Carolina athletic department.
The Diamond Pirates had their ten-game winning streak snapped at Houston on Friday night in a 2-0 loss. ECU bounced right back and swept a doubleheader over the Cougars on Saturday to win the series.
The Pirates continue to rise in the national rankings. ECU is now ranked 8th in the D1Baseball.com poll, 9th in the PerfectGame.com rankings and 10th by Baseball America.
The Pirates are a most impressive 8-1 in league play, opening with sweeps over Central Florida, South Florida and taking two out of three from Houston.
Most of the rest of the league is battling around the .500 mark. There is still plenty of baseball to play, but the Pirates are off to a great start in the American Athletic Conference.
This week the Pirates have four big non-conference games. The Pirates visit UNC-Wilmington tonight, and then hit the road for the west coast to take on top-ranked UCLA this coming weekend.
ECU coach Cliff Godwin wants his team to play the very best in the nation. That’s why he scheduled trips to Ole Miss, Mississippi State and now UCLA.
Even though the competition gets tougher, the message in Pirate baseball remains the same.
“We just have to worry about ourselves,” Godwin has said all season. “If we play our brand of baseball, game in and game out, then we’ll have a good chance to win every time out.”
The way these Pirates bounced back after a tough 2-0 loss to Houston on Friday night speaks volumes about the maturity of this team.
Baseball is simply a game that you don’t win every time out. Ten-game winning streaks are difficult to come by.
With the two wins over Houston, the Pirates are one-fifth of the way to another one.
Spring Football game set for Saturday
The most anticipated spring football game at East Carolina in years is set for this Saturday.
It will be Pirate fans’ first look at Mike Houston’s football team. Houston says this team has come a long way since the start of spring drills. He also emphasizes that his team has a long way to go.
“They are working hard and definitely getting better,” said Houston as a guest on my weekly radio show on Pirate Radio 1250 and 930. “But make no mistake about it; we have a long way to go.”
Saturday’s spring game will be interactive in nature. I’ll have the mic on the field with Coach Houston to get his reactions to things as they happen during the contest.
We’ll see the first string offense against the first string defense in the game. That means the 1’s will face off against 1’s, 2’s will play against 2’s, and so forth.
The defense will pick up points for sacks, tackles for loss and holding the offense on downs. The offense will get obvious points for touchdown and field goals, but will also be rewarded for first downs and other stats.
“We’ll get the points on the board as soon as they happen,” said Houston. “You’d be surprised how quickly things can change in the game. The offense can be up by ten, and then the defense has a good run and it tightens things up. I think the fans will really like the game.”
Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Come out early and grab some barbecue and get ready for your last taste of football until August 31st against North Carolina State.
We’ll see you at Dowdy-Ficklen on Saturday.
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Don’t forget the women’s tennis team and its 20-game win streak.