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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, May 6, 2003
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
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Pirates spring surprise;
Promotion for Tracy?
©2003 Bonesville.net
When East Carolina welcomed Conference USA leader Southern Miss to town
and opened the series with a Friday loss, few expected the Golden Eagles
would go home on Sunday with a pair of defeats.
When the dust had settled after the weekend's action around the league,
Southern Miss and Texas Christian were tied for first in C-USA, with Tulane
a game back and Houston two games behind.
East Carolina improved to 14-10, good for fifth place in the league with
six games to play.
To close out the year, the Pirates get a dose of both ends of the C-USA
standings. ECU first host UAB in a three-game set starting on Friday. The
Blazers are 8-15 in league play, tied for ninth with Memphis.
ECU closes out the regular season with a visit to New Orleans to
challenge Tulane. The Green Wave is 17-7, just one game out of first place.
Odds are that Tulane will be playing for at least a share of the C-USA
regular season championship in that series.
The Pirates will spend a lot of time in “The Big Easy” to end the year,
as the C-USA baseball tournament is in New Orleans.
No slight intended against our friends from K-town, but Kinston, where
ECU hosted last season's league tourney, and New Orleans are worlds apart.
This, too, will work against the Pirates come tourney time.
Give Mazey and the Pirates credit for an outstanding series against USM.
The Pirates took a 3-0 lead in game one, but then gave up too many home runs
and wound up losing 6-3.
But East Carolina rallied and took game two on Saturday, opening the door
for the possible series win on Sunday.
ECU got that needed Sunday victory. It was a gutsy win for Glenn Tucker
out of the bullpen that was the difference.
Freshman Kevin Rhodes made his first career start in the rubber game but
didn’t make it out of the second inning.
Clint King homered off Rhodes to lead off the second inning, and Southern
Miss scored all three of its runs in that inning.
Two more Golden Eagles reached before Tucker came in to save the day. Two
more runs scored on a double and a sacrifice fly. Tucker came up with two
strikeouts to get out of the jam.
Mazey was quick to give credit to his team for battling in this series.
“These guys have gotten used to winning,” Mazey said. “They know how to
play hard and in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning they find a way to win
these games.”
With this weekend’s series win, the ECU has now won seven of its eight
series against conference opponents this season.
Former Pirate may be headed to the 'Bigs'
The Sporting News reports on its web sight that former Pirate Chad
Tracy could be called up soon.
Currently, Tracy plays for the Arizona Sidewinders, the Triple A
affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Tracy is seventh in the Pacific Coast League in hitting at .356.
In 28 games Tracy has three home runs and six doubles. His slugging
percentage is at .500 and his on-base average is at .411.
The Sporting News reported in its exclusive team report that the
Diamondbacks wouldn’t wait to make a move with the team’s offense
struggling.
The web site said the team is seriously considering bringing Tracy up to
replace a struggling Matt Williams.
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02/23/2007 01:26:30 AM |
