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BASKETBALL |
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Tyson lifts Pirates
to win at Tulane |
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NEW ORLEANS — B.J.
Tyson led four East
Carolina players in
double figures with
22 points as the
Pirates stopped a
six-game losing
streak with a 79-73
American Athletic
Conference win at
Tulane on Wednesday
night.
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Next:
Cincinnati at ECU |
Saturday, 12 pm |
ESPNU |
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BASEBALL |
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Pirates defeat N.C. A&T, 11-2 |
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina outhit
North Carolina A&T 15-5 in an 11-2
nonconference win on Tuesday afternoon. The
game was originally scheduled for Wednesday
but was moved up due to the threat of severe
weather today.
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More... |
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Next: ECU at UVa
| Fri. 3 pm; Sat. 1 pm; Sun. 1 pm |
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BASEBALL |
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Marathon season starts on right
note |
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 Break
out the brooms. East Carolina opened
the 2016 baseball season with a
sweep of Longwood at Clark-LeClair
Stadium. The season is a marathon
and not a sprint. Still, second-year
head coach Cliff Godwin and the
Pirates were more than excited to
get the opening weekend sweep.
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More from Brian Bailey...
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BASEBALL |
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Pirates come back for sweep |
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina faced its first
deficit of the young season and responded by
rallying for a 5-3 nonconference win over
Longwood on Sunday afternoon before 3,067 at
Clark-LeClair Stadium.
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BASKETBALL |
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Mustangs take 74-63 win over ECU |
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DALLAS — Southern Methodist had an 8-0 run
at the end of the first half to overcome a
35-28 East Carolina lead Sunday afternoon
and the host Mustangs went on to take a
74-63 American Athletic Conference win.
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Next: ECU at
Tulane | Wednesday, 8 pm | ESPNN |
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BASEBALL |
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Another strong start keys Pirates |
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina got another
strong starting performance on the mound to
win its second game in a season-opening
series with Longwood on Saturday. The
Pirates topped the Lancers 9-6 at Clark-LeClair
Stadium as Jacob Wolfe pitched six scoreless
innings after being staked to a 5-0 lead in
the third inning.
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BASEBALL |
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Pirates start impressively |
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GREENVILLE — East Carolina
junior left-hander Evan
Kruczynski pitched seven
scoreless innings as the Pirates
opened the baseball season with
an 11-1 nonconference win over
visiting Longwood on Friday.
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By
Al Myatt
©2016 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
East Carolina's baseball
team is off to a 4-0 start with
three wins over Longwood
last weekend and
an 11-2 victory over North Carolina A&T
on Tuesday. The circumstances will be more challenging this weekend
as the Pirates visit Virginia, the 2015 College World Series
champions.
"We were tested a little
bit on Saturday and Sunday against Longwood where Joe Ingle had to
come in on Saturday when we had a big lead," said ECU coach Cliff
Godwin. "We kind of gave up a few runs. Joe Ingle had to come in and
shut the door. Sunday was a close game pretty much the whole day.
Sunday, I was proud of our guys. We gave up two runs in the first
and we scored three right then (bottom of the first). We put up
another run in the fourth. Then they scored a run in the seventh and
we answered with a run in the seventh. Nick Durazo pitched well out
of the bullpen and so did Joe Ingle again.
"It's good to play those
games. It's not always fun as a coach. It's more stressful than when
you win 11-2 but the guys were put in some situations that were
crucial and played well."
Pitching looks solid
The Pirates have used 14
pitchers and have a staff earned run average of 2.75.
"They've done awesome,"
Godwin said. "(Evan) Kruczynski, seven innings, zero runs. Jacob
Wolfe, six innings, zero runs. Jimmy Boyd, five innings, two runs,
giving us a chance to win. Durazo and Joe Ingle out of the bullpen
did well. Tuesday, we got to pitch a lot of those freshmen. Sam
Lanier has been in twice. He really came into a bad situation
Tuesday where there were runners on first and second with no outs.
He immediately gets a double-play ball and then gets out of the
inning without giving up a run. Chris Holba had a clean inning. Cam
Colmore had a clean inning and Matt Bridges had a clean inning.
"We were able to get a
lot of guys in on Tuesday and they performed well."
Godwin anticipated a
rotation this weekend of the left-handed Kruczynski (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
at 3 p.m. today, southpaw Wolfe (1-0, 0.00) at 1 p.m. on Saturday
and righty Boyd (1-0, 3.60) at 1 p.m. on Sunday against the
Cavaliers.
"If they're healthy,
that's who we're going with," said the second-year Pirates skipper.
First-year players
produce
Freshman outfielder
Dwanya Williams-Sutton is 7-for-14 (.500) with three doubles and six
RBIs for the Pirates thus far.
"He was nicked up some
in the fall," Godwin said. "He had a crack in his thumb. A ball hit
his thumb. His hamstring bothered him at times.
"There's wear and tear
on a college baseball player. It's physical. The days of your body
feeling 100 percent were probably left back in high school. I've
been very proud of the way he's approached each and every day,
whether it be practice or games and just bringing his best effort
every single day.
"Our leaders on our
team, Garrett Brooks, Travis Watkins and Parker Lamm, have really
helped him just be able to exert all of his energy every single day.
He's a special athlete. The guy's 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, runs a 6.6
(second) 60 (yards) and can hit balls out of sight. ... His best
days are still ahead of him. We've got to keep working to get him
better."
Freshman shortstop
Turner Brown also is off to a good start, hitting .571.
"He got off with a bang
on Friday night, ... 3-for-3 with a triple shy of the cycle, Godwin
said. "He played well defensively on Friday and Saturday. He did a
good job."
Junior college transfer
Wesley Phillips, an infielder, also has potential for the Pirates.
"Wes Phillips played on
Saturday and Sunday," Godwin said. "He did well. We got a lot of
guys in and got them some at-bats in different situations on the
weekend. They've all answered the bell in my opinion. I think
everybody who has been on the field has done what they're supposed
to do."
Mindset vs. Virginia
Virginia (3-1) is ranked
No. 8 in the National College Baseball Writers Association poll. ECU
has lost nine in a row in the series, which the Cavaliers lead,
29-20.
Right-hander Connor
Jones of UVa has matched Kruczynski's numbers with a 1-0 record and
0.00 ERA. Jones is expected to start today's matchup.
The Cavs swept last
year's series in Greenville by scores
of 3-1,
9-2 and 4-2.
"I know it's Virginia,"
Godwin said. "They're the defending national champions and all that
stuff. I just want us to go play well. If we play well, we're going
to put ourselves in position to have a chance to win the game.
"A lot of people have
been talking about Virginia even before the season started. We had
to win our first few games before Virginia is even on our mind. Our
guys will be ready. They're prepared. We need to go out there and
play our best baseball for sure to have a chance to win."
Since 1998, the Pirates
are 70-126 against ranked teams.
O'Connor has
transformed program
The current Virginia
coaching staff has established a model for success since taking over
prior to the 2004 season.
"It starts at the top
with Brian O'Connor (head coach who came from Notre Dame), Kevin
McMullen (hitting coach and former Pirates assistant) and Karl Kuhn
(pitching coach)," Godwin said. "They've been together ever since
O'Connor took over the program. They've got stability in their
coaches. They recruit very well. They're tremendous coaches. When
you have great players and you have great coaches, that's a recipe
for success. Continuity in their staff has definitely helped them
out.
"I can't say enough
about how great they are as coaches."
The Cavaliers did lose
some talent from a team that went 44-24 last year, including 15-15
in the ACC.
"They lost some key
guys," Godwin said. "But they reload every year. There will be a
freshman for them that will be the next Nathan Kirby or the next
Josh Sborz. They're going to be good. We'll need to play our best
baseball to have a chance to win."
Respect, not fear
Competing successfully
is a pitch by pitch process.
"It's like I tell our
guys every single day — we don't want to play up to our competition
and we don't want to play down to our competition," Godwin said. "We
want to respect every opponent we play but fear nobody. Teams that
get up for Virginia and play down to another team, they're going to
be inconsistent in my opinion. They might beat a great team but then
they might lose to a team that is less talented than them.
"We just worry about us
showing up every single day and focus on winning pitches,
offensively, defensively and on the mound. If we win enough pitches,
then we'll win the game. ... I just want to go up there and play
well and see how we match up against UVa."
Weather limited
Wednesday plans
The Pirates were not
able to practice Wednesday because of the threat of severe weather
before making the bus ride to Charlottesville on Thursday afternoon.
"East Carolina let
school out at one o'clock (Wednesday) so we weren't able to do any
kind of athletic activities," Godwin said. "We were able to get a
couple of pitchers in before 1 (p.m.) to get their bullpens in and
stuff but once one o'clock hit, the university shut us down. ...
It's not a bad thing. We played on Tuesday. We played well. There's
not a ton of stuff you're trying to put in this time of year. You're
just taking BP, ground balls and keeping them fresh."
The
Brian Bailey Show airs on Pirate
Radio 1250 on Mondays at 6:30
p.m. Brian's guest this week was
ECU
pitching
coach Dan Roszel: