Life has changed for East Carolina going into the American Athletic Conference baseball tournament starting Tuesday in Clearwater, FL. For the first time since 2018, the Pirates will not go into the event with the No. 1 seeding accorded the regular season champion.

ECU began an extended stay in the Sunshine state with a 5-1 win over South Florida in Tampa on Thursday night in the first of a 3-game AAC series.

“We’re on a mission of winning one game at a time,” said Dixon Williams on the Pirate radio network.

Williams was instrumental in a couple of plays that gave ECU a 3-0 lead in the fourth.

After the Bulls (27-23, 14-11 AAC) loaded the bases with one out in the third, shortstop Alex Bouche made a back-handed snag on a ground ball and flipped to Williams at second. The junior from D.H. Conley turned two with a barehanded catch and peg.

“That was the difference in the game,” noted Coach Cliff Godwin of the momentum swing that denied USF a potential big inning.

Jack Herring and Austin Irby started the fourth with singles before Williams connected with a 1-0 pitch from Jack Nedrow (5-3) for a 3-run homer to right.

That was plenty of support for a trio of effective Pirate pitchers, who struck out 13 while scattering seven hits.

Lance Williams started and went four innings with three hits, no runs, one walk and three whiffs. Brad Pruett (4-5) got the win. The Oklahoma transfer went three innings with four hits, one run (earned), one walk and five strikeouts.

Ethan Young recorded six straight outs in the last two frames for his third save with five going down on strikes.

ECU added two runs in the sixth as Drew Downs had a sacrifice bunt that brought in Davin Whitaker and Braden Burress had a single to right that scored Colby Wallace.

USF avoided a shutout on a sacrifice fly by Lance Trippel in the eighth.

Irby went 2-for-5 as the Pirates (29-23, 13-12 AAC) outhit the hosts, 10-7.

Game two of the series is scheduled for Friday at 6 :30 p.m.

Sub on the mike

Patrick Johnson sat in for Dylan Johnson as the play-by-play voice for the radio description of the game with former Pirate coach Gary Overton providing the color commentary.

Johnson felt that Ethan Norby might start the second game of the series for the Pirates. The sophomore left-hander is 6-5 with a 3.65 earned run average and has usually pitched the first games of weekend series.

Godwin is stacking his pitching for the league tournament.

NCAA Tournament scenario

It’s no secret that the door for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is closed for ECU this season, but the AAC Tournament provides an opportunity to make the field with an automatic berth to the champion.

The Pirates are currently sixth in the league standings. The No. 6 seed would meet the No. 3 seed in the fourth and last game Tuesday at approximately 8 p.m.

2018 run

Although the Pirates weren’t the regular season champions in 2018, they made a run to the AAC Tournament title against a significantly different conference membership.

ECU opened with wins over Central Florida (8-4) and Tulane (6-5) before falling to No, 18 Houston, the regular season champ, 5-3.

The Pirates bounced back to beat the Cougars with a 12-1 win in seven innings before topping Connecticut, 4-3, in the final for an automatic NCAA berth.

Spencer Brickhouse was named the event’s Most Outstanding Player. Jake Agnos, who recently made his debut with the Colorado Rockies, had nine strikeouts in four innings.

Traveling lighter

Wiliams made reference Thursday to some player departures prior to the trip to Tampa.

Freshman outfielder Kenan Bowman has announced he will enter the transfer portal. He made 14 starts and saw action in 41 games. He hit .277 but had not played as much with the return of senior center fielder Ryley Johnson from physical issues in recent weeks.

A pair of true freshman, right-handed pitcher Tyler Brashear and infielder Neil Griffin, reportedly have been removed from the roster.

Career record

Way down the list of priorities for Godwin is the ECU career wins record, but the triumph on Thursday night was No. 426 for the former Pirate catcher, who was recruited by Overton.

Coach O has the career wins record with 427 from 1985 to 1997.

Kruczynski inspires

One thing that Godwin does highly care about is his relationships with players.

He said remarks by Evan Kruczynski at the team hotel on Thursday night were a source of inspiration.  The lefty was an All American and got a win at Texas Tech in a Super Regional in 2016.

“He talked about pride in the uniform,” Godwin said. “He got choked up. I’m getting choked up talking about it.”