The importance of winning the American Conference tournament in terms of getting into the NCAA field was underscored with the selection announcements on ESPN2 on Monday.

East Carolina topped Texas-San Antonio, 1-0, on Sunday for the league’s automatic berth. The Roadrunners were on the outside looking in when the bids were revealed.

ECU athletic director Jon Gilbert had told Pirates coach Cliff Godwin that it would be 50-50 on admission to the NCAA if ECU didn’t win the league tournament.

Victory is assured if the opposing team doesn’t score. Brett Antolick, Ethan Norby, Gavin Marley and Charlie Hoagland combined for a shutout Sunday.

Consecutive singles by Braden Burress, Davin Whitaker and Colby Wallace in the top of the sixth inning produced the run that got ECU into the Chapel Hill regional when the pairings were released.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark made his case for NCAA inclusion after going 3-2 against the Pirates this season. The Roadrunners and ECU shared the American regular season championship with 17-10 league records.

“We deserve a different fate maybe,” Hallmark said after Sunday’s final. “But deserve has got nothing to do with it sometimes. East Carolina played a tiny bit better than we did. …

“To me, we should be a 2-bid league. We played the Sun Belt and we beat the (expletive) out of the Sun Belt. We almost run-ruled Coastal (Carolina) and we run-ruled Texas State.”

The Roadrunners hit five home runs in a 16-10 win over the Chanticleers in the Bruce Bolt Classic in Houston on Feb. 28 when Coastal was ranked No. 9. UTSA also beat Ohio State and Baylor that weekend.

Texas State took a 19-4 drubbing from the Roadrunners in seven innings in San Antonio on May 12.

Coastal and Texas State made the NCAA field along with Southern Miss, Louisiana and Troy from the Sun Belt.

Troy went 1-2 in the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville this season.

ECU coach Cliff Godwin was hoping UTSA (38-20) would make the field.

“For UTSA to not be even one of the first four teams out is crazy,” said the Pirates coach. “I don’t care what kind of metrics. There’s an eye test. I’ve coached baseball for a long time. They’re one of the best 64 teams.

“I know there are some other things that go into it, but I feel for Coach Hallmark. He and I were exchanging text messages (Sunday) night. He’s one of the best baseball coaches in the country.

“I’m not saying that because he’s in the conference. I’ve known him for a long time. He was an assistant at Rice under Wayne Graham. He respects what we do here. They’re going to be a force to be reckoned with, but I feel bad for them.”

Regional schedule

The Pirates (36-22-1) are the No. 3 seed for the Chapel Hill regional and will take on second-seeded Tennessee (38-20) on Friday at noon at Boshamer Stadium (ESPNU).

“It’s going to feel like a home game in the regional in Chapel Hill,” said junior left-hander Ethan Norby, who had a win and a save to earn Most Outstanding Player honors in the American tournament. “It felt like the crowd was 50-50 at Coastal in the regional last year and we’re even closer now.”

Host North Carolina (45-11-1), the No. 1 seed, plays fourth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth (37-23) on Friday at 5 p.m. (ESPN+). UNC is the No. 5 national seed.

The regional has a double-elimination format.

The Chapel Hill regional is matched up with the College Station (Texas A&M) regional for the Super Regional best-of-three.

Sick puppies

The phrase “sick puppies” has caught on with the Pirates.

“That’s from our man, Bobby Austin,” Godwin said. “He’s our director of program development and camp coordinator. When you’re feeding the pitching machine and our guys are hitting, it’s kind of dangerous.

“He’s always like, ‘Coach, you’ve got to be a sick puppy to be out here feeding this pitching machine.’ Line drives are ricocheting and stuff.

“We just kind of ran with it.”

Right fielder Jack Herring said the phrase rings true this time of year.

“You’ve got to do tough things to win postseason baseball games,” Herring said. “You’ve got to be a sick puppy.”

League honors

The Pirates won the American tournament despite not receiving any major league honors this year — Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, etc.

Herring made second team all-conference and confirmed that motivated him in the conference tournament. Godwin said American coaches aren’t allowed to vote for their own players in the balloting for league honors.

Herring made the all-tournament team from ECU as an outfielder. He was joined on the unit by catcher Walker Barron and infielder Braden Burress. Norby took home the MOP honor.

Continued success

Godwin noted that the Pirates are one of six programs with active streaks of eight or more consecutive regional appearances.

“You look across college athletics, and I’m not just talking baseball,” he said. “It’s really hard to sustain success.”

LSU won the College World Series last year for its eighth national championship in baseball.

“Everybody knows they’ve got a lot of money on the field,” Godwin said. “And they’re not even in a regional.”

Reminder from Mom

Godwin said his mother, Kathy, reminded him the last time ECU played Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament was in the Super Regional at Grainger Stadium in Kinston in 2001.

Godwin said he made the last out of the best-of-three series with two runners on base.

“I had 15 home runs that year,” he said. “Right-hander threw a change-up and I was sitting on it. I just got a little under it.”

A high pop to second ended hopes for Omaha that year.

“That was the last game Coach (Keith) LeClair coached in uniform,” Godwin said. “He got diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s  disease.”

Payne a former Vol

Junior lefty Luke Payne made nine appearances in two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to ECU after the 2025 season.

He will be a resource in preparing for the Volunteers.

“I don’t know how many guys are still there from when he was there, but talking to him is going to be important,” Norby said. “Doing our own scouting is also going to be important.”

First-year head coach

Josh Elander is in his first season as head coach at Tennessee. He was on the Volunteers staff for eight years under Tony Vitello.

Tennessee won the NCAA Tournament in 2024.

Vitello took the position of manager with San Francisco in October and Elander was promoted.

The Volunteers went 15-15 in the Southeastern Conference in 2026.

An 8-4 loss to Arkansas knocked the Vols out of the SEC Tournament after they opened with an 11-6 win over South Carolina.

Tennessee is hitting .278 as a team with a combined earn run average of 4.71.

Rejuvenated staff

Even without the loss of starters Gavin Van Kempen and Colby Weber this season plus the absence of bullpen ace Sean Jenkins, the Pirates yielded just 10 runs in four games in Clearwater.

Key elements have been improvement and persistence among the remaining pitchers, characteristics of the entire team.

“What Antolick did (Sunday),” Godwin said. “First postseason appearance and the guy hadn’t been on the mound but twice in the last two months. What Ryan Towers has done over the past couple of months. What Norby has done.

“Ethan Rose and Charlie Hoagland, two freshmen. And (Gavin) Marley. All these guys have continued to get better.

“Nobody remembers — no offense to Joe Webb — how inconsistent and bad he was early in the season and how great he’s been for us down the stretch.

“Just a credit to those guys. They just didn’t quit. That teaches you about the game of life. Just proud of the guys.

“It’s one of the most rewarding years to this point that we’ve had here. In ’19 and ’21, and some of the other teams we’ve had here we were just better than people.

“We had to scratch and claw for everything we got this year.”

The Pirates have indeed scratched and clawed — like sick puppies.