East Carolina had a grueling run through the American Athletic Conference tournament at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, FL. The top-seeded Pirates dropped their opener against South Florida, 12-11, in 11 innings, before winning four games in the losers bracket to reach the final against Tulane.
The seventh-seeded Green Wave prevailed, 8-6, in the championship.
On Monday, the NCAA Tournament bracket was released. ECU is headed to the Charlottesville regional to take on Oklahoma on Friday at 7 p.m. on the opening day of the double elimination event.
Pirates coach Cliff Godwin talked Tuesday morning about preparing for ECU’s 33rd appearance in the NCAA event.
“We lifted yesterday,” Godwin said. “We’ll lift today. We’re actually going to go bowling this afternoon and then we’ll practice (Wednesday) morning here and then get on the bus early afternoon and head to Charlottesville.”
Practice time on site is monitored.
“The NCAA gives you an hour and 15 minutes up there,” Godwin said. “So, we’ll do that on Thursday and then play on Friday.”
AAC run
The Pirates played their last nine games in Florida, sweeping a regular season series at USF before the AAC tournament. The Bulls overcame a 9-5 deficit with six runs in the top of the ninth in the AAC first round.
“It’s obviously not how you draw it up, especially the way we lost,” Godwin said. “We had a lead and couldn’t hold it, but I was really proud of the way our guys came back. We blew the lead and then Josh Moylan hits the 2-run homer for a tie, to send us to extra innings.
“Our guys battled all week. We were the first team ever to lose the first game on day one and make it to the championship game. Unfortunately, I just think our guys were out of gas with all the baseball we had to play leading up to the championship game, so I was really proud of the way our guys battled.”
In the final against Tulane, Ryley Johnson appeared safe on a steal attempt that would have put runners at second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth. He was called out and the ruling was not overturned on review.
“We didn’t play good,” Godwin said. “I mean, no offense to Tulane. We didn’t play good. We just couldn’t. The mind, when it gets tired, man, just not good enough. There’s a lot of things that happened during that game, early in the game, that we just weren’t mentally alert. We had been the previous days, but yeah, I thought it was safe after seeing it on replay. I mean, I didn’t really think there was a … But, if you put it in the umpire’s hands, we know how that works. It’s 50-50.”
Regular season hardware
The Pirates brought a trophy back from the Sunshine State for winning the AAC regular season championship for the fourth straight year.
“Yes,” said the ECU alumnus and ninth-year coach. “Yep. Yep.”
And where will that trophy go?
“Most likely in our baseball facility,” Godwin said.
Practice focus
The Pirates take a 45-17 record to the regional. This late in the season, practice won’t be extremely long.
“Just getting them back out there, taking some ground balls, going over some things that we haven’t gone over in a while,” Godwin said of the emphasis. “A little hitting. It won’t be extremely long, so just getting them back into a baseball routine really.”
Sooners in final in 2022
Oklahoma (31-26) lost to Ole Miss in the College World Series championship last year.
Godwin will study the Sooners later in the week. How the Pirates stack their pitching is also under consideration.
“We got plenty of time between now and Friday, so I have not looked at them,” Godwin said. “We haven’t decided on the rotation yet, so we’re going to figure that out at practice (Wednesday). Most likely we’re going to take it one game at a time and just have all hands on deck to win the first game and then figure out the second game.”
Metrics
As chronicled in the movie, Moneyball, which starred Brad Pitt as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, statistical analysis in baseball has expanded significantly from the simple parameters of batting average and earned run average.
What are the stats that Godwin gives credence?
“Offensively we talk about quality at-bats all the time,” Godwin said. “I think on base percentage is a big deal. We look at our splits, our quality of at-bats, first of all, versus right-handed pitchers, versus left-handed pitching. Runs scored is a big deal because that wins baseball games, and then on the pitching side, just throwing quality pitches, multiple pitches for strikes, and probably whip (walks, hits per innings pitched).
A lot of categories can characterize a quality at-bat.
“If you hit a line drive at somebody, you get out, it’s a quality at bat,” Godwin said. “You get a sacrifice bunt down, it’s a quality of bat. Execute a hit-and-run it’s the quality of bat. Getting the bunt down, it’s a quality at-bat. An RBI is a quality at-bat.
“It’s just focusing on things that you can control rather than, okay, I looped the ball over the second baseman’s head. It was a bad swing, but I got on base.”
2016
ECU’s last regional on the road was 2016 in Charlottesville. A walk-off, 3-run homer by Travis Watkins provided an 8-6 win over Virginia and the Pirates subsequently beat William & Mary, 8-4, to earn a berth in a Super Regional at Texas Tech.
“It was a really cool moment,” Godwin said of Watkins’ dramatic clout. “That’s great for fans, but that’s not going to help us win a game this year. We have to be ourselves and do what we do. This team is different like any other team.”
If the regional follows the seedings, the second-seeded Pirates would meet the top-seeded Cavaliers on Saturday.
Familiar potential foes
The top two seeds scrimmaged in Greenville in the fall.
“Both teams are familiar with each other,” Godwin said. “I mean, they were in our regional last year. We play them every fall. Coach (Brian) O’Connor does a great job with his program. Coach Mac (Kevin McMullen), he has coached at East Carolina.
“It’s post-season baseball. Anything can happen, so we’re not going to take a lot about what happened in the fall into account to what’s going to go on this weekend. I mean, our first priority is we’ve got to beat Oklahoma.”
Keys
Godwin was asked about keys this weekend.
“Being ourselves and play like we played this week in the conference tournament,” he said. “We’ve played our best baseball down the stretch. Just be ourselves.”
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