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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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By Brian Bailey |
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Home is where the
hope is
By
Brian Bailey
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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East Carolina took another
road hit this past weekend, falling to Marshall 83-49.
The Pirates now stand at 8-13
overall, 2-6 in Conference USA.
This week provides a pair of
home games. This Pirate team plays much better at home, and I think the team
has a chance to win both games.
The road woes, though, are a
much different matter.
“We played well on the road
early in the year,” said Pirate coach Mack McCarthy. “We played well at
South Florida, at George Mason, etc. We were probably playing better on the
road for a spell then we were playing at home.”
That hasn’t been the case of
late. Road games will be next week’s problem.
This week, Coach Mack and
company try to win a couple of league tilts against Tulsa on Wednesday and
versus Southern Miss on Saturday.
“We’re catching Tulsa at a bad
time,” said McCarthy. “They are really starting to play good basketball.
Their center, Jerome Jordan, is really turning into a good player. He’s a
big seven footer, and we’ve had trouble guarding guys in the post.”
Southern Miss comes to
Greenville for the return game on Saturday. Back on February 2, the Golden
Eagles whipped ECU 92-69.
“Southern Miss got pretty beat
up at Tulsa the other night, so if you’re comparing scores things don’t look
good,” said McCarthy. “But we’ve played pretty well at home. We’ve been
competitive in all of our home games.”
It’s a big week for the
program. A couple of home wins this week would move the Pirates within a
couple of games of the .500 mark in the league.
Looking at the bigger picture,
achieving some consistent success at home would be a great step towards the
building of a solid program.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
For that matter, the Romans weren’t a very good road team, either.
Baseball shaping up
The East Carolina baseball
team continued with its preseason scrimmage work this past weekend.
The Pirates held a trio of
situational scrimmages, and the results were most positive.
“I was really pleased with
this past weekend,” said ECU coach Billy Godwin. “We were certainly more
crisp and things are shaping up.
“We hit eight or nine home
runs this weekend. It’s just hard to evaluate things when you’re competing
against yourselves. I do know that we were much better this past weekend.”
Godwin’s starting pitching
rotation is taking shape as well.
T.J. Hose will be the Friday
starter. Godwin also said that Auburn transfer Justin Bristow looks to be
the Sunday starter. Saturday is still up in the air, but freshman Seth
Maness is the favorite to take that slot.
“Sthil Sowers really threw the
ball well this weekend,” added Godwin. “That’s really big for us. He’s a guy
that we thought would help right away and he looked good.”
Sowers is a former area
standout at North Lenoir High School.
Saturday is a big day for the
program with the 8th annual “Meet the Pirates” Day luncheon. That’s also
when we’ll find out which Pirate player will wear the No. 23 this year to
honor former East Carolina coach Keith LeClair.
I asked Coach Godwin if he’d
give us a hint as to which player was chosen.
“All I will say is that
this player is certainly the most deserving,” said Godwin.
We’ll all find out on
Saturday.
That afternoon, the Pirates
will once again scrimmage. This time the pitching staff will be used in
actual game-type situations. The players will also wear their game uniforms
to continue to get ready for the season.
One of those uniforms will
feature the number 23.
The Pirates open the season at
South Carolina a week from this Friday.
BB
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04/21/2008 07:03:54 PM |
