By Al Myatt
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The drama of a walk-off win against the defending College World Series champions, the first Super Regional victory in East Carolina history and a job offer from Alabama are in the past for Pirates coach Cliff Godwin.

He is officially on the recruiting trail for ECU. He was in Cary on Friday for the State Games of North Carolina.

"The best underclassmen in the state," Godwin said of the talent on hand.

The Pirates have already wrapped up the incoming freshman class and it appears to be a good one although ECU will lose out to the Baltimore Orioles for right-handed pitcher Brenan Hanifee, a fourth round pick from Bridgewater, VA.

Godwin won't even pay much attention to the action in Omaha.

"I'm not following the College World Series," he said. "I'm worried about recruiting right now. It's just on TV. If I'm in a hotel or at home, I might look at it. I'm on the road recruiting now. I've flipped the switch."

Tide came calling

Alabama took note of what Godwin has done in two years since leaving Ole Miss as an assistant coach after helping the Rebels to the CWS. The Pirates won the American Athletic Conference tournament in 2015 and extended No. 5 national seed Texas Tech to three games in the Super Regional in Lubbock. Mitch Gaspard was reportedly making $300,000 annual salary with the Crimson Tide before stepping down after the 2016 season.

"They were interested," Godwin said of Alabama. "I just thought it was best that I stay here at East Carolina. We're building something here. Obviously, this place is very special to me. I played here. We've got a great group of guys who are returning and a great group of guys who are coming in. It would have been very hard for me to step away from that even though I had the opportunity for a much more lucrative deal financially. Money is not everything.

"This place is special."

Godwin had conversations with ECU athletic director Jeff Compher during the process of the Tide's pursuit.

"You have to," Godwin said. "They have to ask permission to speak to me first off. Obviously, there were a lot of conversations between Jeff and I."

Godwin's contract at ECU will be revised.

"There's some stuff in the works," Godwin said. "They're pleased with what we're doing here so hopefully we'll be here for a long time."

Godwin isn't all about dollars. The fact that he gets a bonus for reaching the Super Regional had eluded him.

"I had forgotten about it until I saw it published," said the ECU coach.

Texas also has a baseball coaching position open with the reassignment of Augie Garrido.

"No, I have not heard from Texas," Godwin said.

Pirates revitalized in regional

There wasn't a lot to distinguish this baseball season from many others at ECU until a three-run homer by Travis Watkins lifted the Pirates to an 8-6 win over host Virginia on Saturday, June 4, in the Charlottesville regional.

Watkins had been working with Godwin, who serves as ECU's hitting coach. He shortened his swing and focused on getting the barrel of the bat to the ball.

"I'm not trying to hit home runs," the junior catcher said almost apologetically after belting a grand slam and a two-run homer in an 8-6 win over the Red Raiders in the Super Regional opener on June 10.

Watkins didn't see many good pitches the rest of the series.

Watkins' efforts can be filed under the team's work ethic, an important element of Godwin's philosophy for success.

"They're a lot better than we thought they were," said Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock after the Super Regional opener.

The Red Raiders obviously weren't the first quality opponent the Pirates encountered. ECU may have been flying under the radar after going 0-2 in the AAC Tournament this year.

"Our schedule was challenging," Godwin said. "We had some ups and downs. It was really kind of tough to get going but in my opinion, like I told the kids, and in life, you've just got to stick with the process. We came to work every single day and the kids came to work every single day. We didn't change what we were doing just because we lost a game here and there. We just stayed with it. My message to the kids all the time is � working hard all the time guarantees success but it doesn't guarantee success the next day. It doesn't guarantee success two weeks from now.

"It doesn't guarantee success in a month but if you stick with it, it's going to guarantee success at some point. That was really our philosophy going into the regional and the guys played unbelievable. We just told them to focus on having a ton of energy and playing hard, playing with positive emotion.

"I don't think anybody would say that anybody played harder than we did during the regional and Super Regional run. Very proud of the guys going on the road at the defending national champion's home and beating them, winning the regional. We never even talked about Virginia being the defending national champion. We were just out there focusing on playing as hard as we could. We brought home the fourth regional championship in school history and then went on the road to Texas Tech and won the first Super Regional game."

Double-figure draftees vs. no draftees

Texas Tech had 10 players taken in the MLB draft, which was held as the Super Regional played out. No Pirates were selected.

"The thing I credit our kids and coaching staff is � I'd be hard-pressed to find another team in the Super Regional that didn't have one player drafted on their team," Godwin said. "We didn't have one player drafted on our team and we were 90 feet away from Omaha.

"That's really great by our kids, great by our coaching staff, our support staff. There's a lot of hard work by a lot of people to not have a kid drafted and still be 90 feet away from Omaha."

A pair of juniors, left-handed pitcher Evan Kruczynski and Watkins, had indicated to pro interests that they would likely remain at ECU for their senior seasons. That says something about the ECU program, too.

"Kruczynski and Watkins definitely could have been drafted," Godwin said. "At the end of the day, we didn't have a player drafted and we were 90 feet away from Omaha. With the returning guys, which is a great group of guys that played a lot this year and pitched a lot this year, with the incoming guys, I feel pretty confident we're going to have a great season next year. We're going to have a lot of hard work between now and then but on paper, it's a pretty good team."

Hosting obviously helps

Perhaps the Pirates will be good enough to host in the NCAA postseason in the future.

Texas Tech drew a stadium record 4,817 for each game in the Super Regional at Rip Griffin Park and most of those were loud in their support.

The Red Raiders took a 3-1 win in 13 innings in the second game before vanquishing the Pirates 11-0 in game three on Sunday, June 12.

"At the end of that second game if we had been playing at home I'm sure that we would have found a way to punch one through," Godwin said. "Credit to them for having a great body of work to be a national seed and be playing at home."