After a season-ending 1-0 loss to Coastal Carolina in the championship of the Conway regional Sunday, East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin conducted a postgame news conference. He was joined by seniors Jake Hunter and Ryley Johnson.
The voices were strained with emotion and maybe there were some sweaty eyeballs as former football coach Ruffin McNeill might say.
The Pirates managed to spin a season that had been shrouded with uncharacteristic mediocrity into something to cherish with a 4-0 run to the American Athletic Conference tournament championship in Clearwater.
That earned ECU its seventh straight NCAA tournament berth and Pirate Nation embraced the 2025 team like returning prodigal sons.
The redemptive finish to the season put joy back into coaching for Godwin.
With only Hunter and Johnson, major contributors who battled their way back from surgeries, at the interview table Sunday was a good thing in itself.
Last year, the news conference after the last game in the Greenville regional included seniors Danny Beal, Joey Berini, Cam Clonch, Carter Cunningham, Jacob Starling and Justin Wilcoxen.
In addition to those departures from the program, Jacob Jenkins-Cowart and Trey Yesavage were drafted,
With the volume of talent that left the program, it’s small wonder that a team with 27 first-year players struggled to find their identity for the better part of 2025.
Small wonder, too, that the record dipped from 46-17 in 2024 to 35-27.
Godwin was caught by surprise by some portal entries last year. He has indicated that he is better prepared to combat NIL departures this year. Godwin has valued loyalty to the program from players, a vanishing commodity in college athletics.
To his credit, ECU pulled together for a captivating stretch run. It took some time to jell with all the prime-time performers that left.
With fewer personnel losses, hopefully, come expectations for ECU to continue its standard of performance.
Closing thoughts 0n 2025
ECU beat Florida, No. 17 in the D1 rankings, for the second time on Sunday by an 11-4 margin before dropping the defensive duel to No. 11 Coastal.
Freshman pitchers Lance Williams and Brad Zayac are reasons for optimism.
“It’s always tough when you lose and it’s the end of the year,” Godwin said. “Man, we have two freshmen that gave us a lot today. Young Lance Williams and … I told Zayac I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a freshman in that kind of environment go toe to toe with a team that’s got 51 wins in front of their home crowd.
“And obviously we knew he was good, and we weren’t even sure Ryley was going to play. Ryley had come out of the first game because he strained his quad. Just another muscle that he pulled. But these two guys next to me, man, they’re unbelievable ambassadors for East Carolina University, not just our baseball program.
“Sad to see them go. They won us a lot of games, but more importantly, they’re good human beings. They did it the right way.”
Back from surgeries
Hunter had Tommy John surgery and Johnson had both shoulders repaired prior to the 2025 campaign
“If you told me that Jake Hunter was going to pitch as much as he did this year, last year this time, I probably would’ve bet against it with having the Tommy John surgery,” Godwin said. “And man, he pitched pretty much every weekend for us.
“And just appreciate these guys and what they’ve meant to me, not just baseball players but as men. We’ll be lifelong friends. But it’s tough when you lose.”
Credit to Coastal
The host Chanticleers (51-11) erupted for an 18-7 win on Saturday night in a winners bracket matchup with the Pirates, who dealt the Gators an 11-6 setback in the regional opener Friday.
“Coastal is very good and I told Kevin (Schnall, Coastal coach), I think I said this already, but they ran a first-class operation this weekend and just everything that was associated with this regional host was first class. It was a great environment to be a part of.”
Differing opinion
Not everyone was as happy with Coastal as a host as Godwin.
Schnall felt compelled to share some thoughts on Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan that were reported by Sports Illustrated.
“I have to say this, and I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this or not, but I believe in standing up for what’s right,” Schnall said. “And what transpired (Sunday) morning on our field — another coach disrespected our associate AD (athletic director) who works as hard as anybody in our entire program.
“He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth. These guys would do anything for our program. It’s not okay. And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach, it’s our job to mentor young kids and the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our associate AD, the way he treated our field crew—it’s absolutely unacceptable.
“That’s what I’m most disappointed about. This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed. Disappointed. Somebody a lot of coaches look up to — for him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach, who’s the site rep here. That’s all I got to say.”
Former UNC-Wilmington coach Mark Scalf was working as the NCAA site representative in Conway. Scalf pushed start times back on Saturday and Sunday the day following late conclusions of games.
Former ECU coach Dr. Gary Overton was working in the site rep capacity at the Athens (Georgia) regional.
Hunter’s take
Hunter, a right-hander from Rockwell in Rowan County, had 81 career appearances for the Pirates, including 27 as a senior.
He was downcast with the end of the season but expressed his amazement at the run that got ECU into the postseason.
“I was just so proud the last two weeks, three weeks,” Hunter said. “Nobody really believed we’d be here. If you told me three weeks ago we’d be playing a regional championship game, I probably would’ve thought you were crazy.
“I had full belief in my teammates, but I’m just so proud of how we came together the last three weeks and competed. I mean that’s just our baseball. Competed all nine innings except for two innings (Saturday).”
Thoughts from Johnson
Johnson played in all 63 games for ECU in 2024 and hit .339. He saw action in 19 games in 2025 and had a .273 average.
Johnson would like the opportunity to play professionally.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever play baseball again. I would love a shot. I’m not just a good outfielder. I can hit too.”
Johnson has no regrets about how things worked out for him.
“If I could go back and do it all again, I would a hundred times,” he said. “The lessons I’ve learned here throughout the five years, the people I’ve met, things I’ve done, it’s awesome. This place is awesome. It’s home. I call Greenville home because she’s always been there for me through my ups and downs.”
Lance Williams has entered the portal.
The scourge of the portal has led at least a couple of high profile coaches to hang it up (Jay Wright, Villanova basketball and Nick Saban, AL football.) I don’t blame ’em.