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College Sports in the Carolinas
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from the East
Friday, April 23, 2004
By Al Myatt
ECU Beat Writer for The News &
Observer |
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Mazey wary of lapses along
road to big prize
©2004 Bonesville.net
With East Carolina’s baseball team reaching levels of success that are
almost unprecedented for the school, many Pirate fans have been wondering if
this is the year the program will finally reach its longtime goal of making
the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Fans were still making their way to the parking lot from Doak Field on
Wednesday night after ECU’s 6-3 non-conference win over N.C. State as
Pirates coach Randy Mazey was putting the outcome in perspective and seeking
to prevent the pitfalls the euphoria from such a conquest might generate.
“We’re clicking on all cylinders right now,” Mazey said. “We need to keep up
the offense the way we are. We’re getting some pretty good pitching right
now. We need to keep up the fan support. At this point in the season, you
don’t want to slack off on any part of your game.”
Mazey said ECU is good enough to make the long-awaited trip.
“I really believe our team is capable of playing in Omaha,” he said. “One of
the only reasons you can’t make it is if you have letdowns along the way.”
That’s one reason Mazey is guarded with Louisville coming to Harrington
Field for a 3-game Conference USA series starting tonight. The Cardinals are
8-7 in Conference USA while ECU, ranked No. 9 by Baseball America, is 12-3
in the league and tied with Southern Miss for first. Louisville is 20-17
overall, including 3-3 on the road in the league and 4-4 on the road
overall.
“If you look in the dictionary under letdown, Friday is going to be a
perfect day for it,” Mazey said. “We had a hard fought game (Wednesday
night), very emotional, big crowd, and a lot of inspiration on the field.
Now you’ve got Louisville coming in on Friday that doesn’t have as good a
record and they’re down in the conference.
“It’s an opportunity for a letdown but we’ve talked to these guys about to
get to Omaha you’ve got to avoid letdowns. They’ve done a good job of that
to this point during the season.”
Mazey expected a good practice on Thursday in preparation for maintaining
the high standard the Pirates have set during their current 13-game winning
streak.
“This game will be ancient history tomorrow, and I think they’ll find a way
to play hard on Friday,” said the Pirates coach.
Sub Seahawks for Blue Devils
Interim athletics director Nick Floyd confirmed that Duke’s scheduled visit
to play East Carolina on May 5 at Grainger Stadium in Kinston has been
deleted.
“Both parties have mutually agreed that game will not be played,” Floyd
said. “We were going to play if we had a lot of rainouts but we’re both near
our limit in terms of games.”
ECU beat Duke 7-5 in Durham on April 7.
Floyd said the games with UNC-Wilmington that were wiped out due to wet
conditions have been rescheduled. ECU will meet the Seahawks at 7 p.m. on
May 4, which would be the last game at the present Harrington Field
structure before new stadium construction begins. ECU will visit UNCW at 7
p.m. on May 11.
The Pirates will play their final home games of the regular season in
Kinston so that work on the new stadium can get underway. That includes N.C.
State at Grainger Stadium at 7 p.m. on May 12 and a 3-game set with TCU,
coming up May 14-16.
Floyd confirmed that ECU is submitting bids to host an NCAA Tournament
regional at Grainger Stadium in Kinston on June 4-6 and a potential super
regional at Fleming Stadium in Wilson on June 11-13. Grainger Stadium is not
available for the super regional weekend because of the Kinston Indians’
Carolina League schedule.
“Wins like last night (at N.C. State) help those bids,” Floyd said Thursday.
Tracy gets the call
Chad Tracy, whose hard-hitting helped ECU to the super regional in Kinston
against Tennessee in 2001, made his first major league start a memorable one
in Milwaukee on Thursday. Tracy was called up from Triple-A Tucson by the
Arizona Diamondbacks when Roberto Alomar went on the 15-day disabled list.
Tracy had been hitting .400 in Tucson through 12 games. He’s hitting .444
after two games in the big leagues. After striking out swinging in the ninth
inning as a pinch hitter in the D-Backs’ 10-6 loss in his major league debut
on Wednesday, Tracy went 4-for-8 on Thursday as Arizona topped the Brewers
11-9 in 15 innings.
Tracy had his first big league RBI for an insurance run in the 15th after
the D-Backs had taken a 10-9 lead.
“Four hits feels good even if you’re in high school,” Tracy was quoted as
saying by Sports Ticker. “Regardless of what I did, the game will always be
in my mind. It was a good one and we came out winners. I’m just glad we
won.”
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02/23/2007 12:45:30 AM
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