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Audio: Brian Bailey
Show |
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  The
Brian Bailey Show
airs on Pirate Radio
1250 on Mondays at
6:30 p.m. Brian's
guests this week were
ECU football coach
Ruffin McNeill
(left) and Cutter
Creek golf
professional Burt
Williams (right):
Replay
show... |
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BASEBALL |
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Pirates shut out USF |
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TAMPA, FL —
Four East
Carolina
pitchers
combined to
shut out
South
Florida in a
6-0 American
Athletic
Conference
win on
Sunday.
David Lucroy,
Nick Durazo,
Joe Ingle
and Jimmy
Boyd limited
the Bulls
(24-12, 7-2
AAC) to a
total of
five hits
and totaled
11
strikeouts. ...
More... |
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Tuesday: ECU vs. UNCW
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Next: ECU at ODU,
Wednesday, 4 pm |
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BASEBALL |
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USF rolls past Pirates |
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TAMPA, FL — South Florida scored three runs
in its first at-bat and went on to a 10-0
American Athletic Conference win over
visiting East Carolina after a 75-minute
delay on Saturday night. Casey Mulholland
(4-4) pitched eight innings of the shutout.
He allowed seven hits and struck out 10. ...
More... |
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BASEBALL |
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Bulls edge ECU, 2-1 |
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TAMPA, FL — South Florida took a 2-1
American Athletic Conference win over
visiting East Carolina on Friday night on a
2-run home run by Luke Maglich in the bottom
of the fifth inning. Maglich connected with
a 2-1 pitch from Reid Love (3-3) after Luke
Borders started the inning with a single to
left field. ...
More... |
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BASEBALL |
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ECU tops Camels, 7-5 |
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 BUIES
CREEK — East
Carolina
scored three
runs in the
second
inning and
led the rest
of the way
in a 7-5
nonconference
win at
Campbell on
Tuesday
night.
A two-out single to right
field by Jackson Mims got
the Pirates (20-13) started
in the second. ...
Story & pictures... |
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Pictured:
ECU coach Cliff
Godwin encourages a
batter during the
Pirates' 7-5 win
over Campbell on
Tuesday night in
Buies Creek. (Photo
by W.A. Myatt) |
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BASEBALL |
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Pirates hit the road after series
win |
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 It
wasn’t a sweep but East Carolina
coach Cliff Godwin will certainly
take it. The Pirates beat Tulane in
the first two games of their
pre-Easter series at Clark-LeClair
Stadium, giving ECU its first series
win in American Athletic Conference
play. ...
More
from Brian Bailey... |
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MULTIMEDIA |
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Audio: The Brian
Bailey Show |
The Brian Bailey
Show airs on Pirate
Radio 1250 on
Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
Brian's guests this
week were Todd
Gibson, Cliff Godwin
and Donnie
Kirkpatrick:
Replay
show... |
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING |
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Recruiting wars: Running Backs |
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 Even
though East Carolina may well have acquired
the best crop of running backs in program
history via recruiting and transfers over
the past year, don't expect the Pirate to
ignore the position while pursuing prospects
for the Class of 2016. ...
More from Sammy Batten... |
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Recruiting Wars:
QB |
RB | WR | TE | OL | DE | NT | LB | DB |
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By
Brian Bailey
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
VIEW MOBILE VERSION OF THIS PAGE
Are you ready for some East Carolina football?
Get ready for a bar-b-cue plate with a side of pigskin for the 32nd
annual Great Pirate Purple-Gold Pigskin Pig-out Party this weekend.
The highlight of the festival is the spring football game, which will
feature the ECU starters on offense against the second team defense, and
the second team offense against the first team Pirate ‘D.’ The third
teamers will also square off against one another.
“The biggest key is that we just want to stay healthy,” said Pirate
coach Ruffin McNeill on my weekly radio show [REPLAY
AUDIO] on Monday night on Pirate Radio 1250. “We will
treat it like a very important practice, but some of our best players
won’t play a whole lot.”
McNeill explained it like this.
“I know Montese Overton can tackle,” he said. “I know Zeek Bigger can
tackle. What I want to see is some of the younger players. How will they
react when the lights come on?"
Saturday’s second spring scrimmage was highlighted by several big plays
by the offense and various penalties.
On the positive, the Pirate offense had a good day throwing the deep
ball. That success, however, came at the expense of the Pirate defense
and their always colorful coordinator, Rick Smith.
“I’m upset with them,” said Smith when asked about his defensive backs.
“I told them that if they kept playing like that then somebody would be
fired. Either I’ll get fired or they will get fired. And I’m not getting
fired.”
Smith has this philosophy on giving up big plays.
“Our goal is to never give up a pass over 20 yards and never give up a
run over 12 yards,” he explained. “We can give up a 10-yard run every
now and then and still come back and play, but it’s hard to overcome 40
yards here and 40 yards there in the secondary.”
Speaking of philosophies, first year offensive coordinator Dave Nichol
shared some of his ideas after Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We were better today,” said Nichol. “We had two late turnovers with our
threes, which they need to protect it better. It was better. I’m going
to say the same stuff. Better energy, better attitude, equals better
play. They were more ready to go and hopefully they can continue that,
that’s going to be the deal.”
Nichol doesn’t plan on naming a starting quarterback out of the spring,
but Kurt Benkert still appears to be the odds on favorite. Benkert says
he is taking things slowly and trying to get better every day himself.
Even though he’s not the starter, he is still playing the part.
“You have to talk like that every day,” said Benkert. “You have to act
like you’re the starter every day. Even when Shane was here I was
conducting myself as if I were ready to play. You have to conduct
yourself the same way every time. I feel like I have a lot of big play
capability. Like I’ve been saying, I want to work on just getting
routine plays and not just random balls here and there that I can make
in my sleep and just being consistent, being consistent as possible.”
For Benkert it’s his first real chance to play the position in front of
the Pirate Nation.
“I’m always excited,” said Benkert. “Anytime we get to be on the field
with this team it’s awesome. I feel like we are different from most
other places and we just always have fun with each other. It’s going to
be different having more people here, but there have been 50,000 here
before and I’ve played, so it’s really not anything new.”
The spring football game won’t be the greatest game you’ll ever see. It
never is. But it does give fans one final glimpse, one last taste of
football before the spring breeze blends into the dog days of summer.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 on Saturday and there is no admission charge.
That means there is no excuse not to check out Pirate football on
Saturday.
Get your ECU football fix while you can. August is a long way away.
BB
