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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
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By Brian Bailey |
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No need to panic as Diamond
Pirates regroup
©2005 Bonesville.net
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which featured dozens of callers dispensing
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With the new stadium to play
in, don’t you wish that the Pirates could play all of their games at
Clark-LeClair Stadium? You kind of hate for the weekend to go by without
catching some innings at the new ballpark.
East Carolina returns home
after a forgettable weekend at Tulane. The 3rd-ranked Green Wave swept ECU,
breaking hearts everywhere in the Pirate nation in games one and three.
The Pirates played tough in
the series and showed that they can hang with the nation’s best. However,
there are no moral victories in Pirate baseball. The ECU team returns home
tonight with a chip on the shoulder.
East Carolina is a good team —
pitching will determine just how good as the season continues. But when you
take into account all that Randy Mazey and company lost from last year, you
have to feel pretty good about the state of the program.
Here’s hoping for a winning
streak at home this week.
Ex-Pirate adjusting to new home
Former East Carolina star Chad
Tracy has moved to the other corner of the diamond for the Arizona
Diamondbacks this season.
Tracy spent his rookie season
at third base, where he struggled at times with throwing errors.
The Diamondbacks love his bat,
though, and decided to move him over to first base when they signed free
agent Troy Glaus.
Tracy hit his first home run
of the spring on Monday. The Diamondbacks beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 in
that game.
I haven’t talked to Chad since
I visited him in Baltimore last year. The closest he’ll play to Eastern
North Carolina this year is when Arizona plays the Washington Nationals. In
fact, Arizona is Washington’s home opener at RFK Stadium.
Football depth chart in the
works
First-year Pirate coach Skip
Holtz is doing his best to stretch out the spring, to help prepare his team
and his staff for the 2005 football season.
The Pirates
went back to work on Monday after a
10-day layoff for spring break. It is hard to believe that it was only the
Pirates' fourth practice of the spring season.
The team is only allowed to
have 12 days of contact in full gear during the spring, and the NCAA doesn’t
allow tackling in four of those 12.
Later this week, Holtz will
start a string of seven straight workouts that include tackling. Those
workouts will include a pair of scrimmages on April 1st and April 8th, and
the spring game on the 16th as a part of the Great Pirate Purple Gold
Pigskin Pigout Party.
"I thought we were a little
rusty on our first day back but the spirit certainly was there," Holtz said.
"Our work ethic and unselfishness to this point has been tremendous, which
will give us a chance to get where everyone wants us to be."
The big news from the Pirate
camp is that Coach Holtz wants to have a working depth chart by the end of
the week. Once the chart is in place, then the new staff can install its new
packages on both sides of the ball.
"We'd like to be in a position
to be able to put in our offense and defense after Easter,” said Holtz.
“We've made a lot of progress, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
I've been pleased with what I've seen from guys in the back like Pierre
Parker, Erode Jean, Jamar Flournoy and Travis Williams. At linebacker,
Richard Koonce, Pierre Bell and Durwin Lamb have also impressed a lot of
folks."
Obviously, Holtz and his staff
have a lot to teach in a short amount of time.
Holtz is banking that
stretching out the spring will pay dividends in the fall.
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02/23/2007 01:31:37 AM |
