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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Even dozen for Diamond
Pirates
By
Brian Bailey
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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Billy Godwin’s version of
March Madness is winning baseball games all month.
East Carolina made it 12 wins
in a row this weekend with a series sweep over Rhode Island. The last Pirate
loss was on Feb. 29 in the first game of the Monmouth series. Since then,
this club has been rolling.
Now East Carolina gets set for
perhaps the biggest week of the season to date. First, it’s the rematch with
Elon today, and then the Pirates open Conference USA playing host to the
Houston Cougars on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Being successful breeds
confidence,” said Godwin after Sunday’s win over the Rams at Clark-LeClair
Stadium. “Right now we’re pretty confident. Every day we’re going to put
ourselves in a position to win.”
Pirate senior Harrison
Eldridge agrees.
“We have a lot of confidence,”
said Eldridge. “A different person is going to get it done everyday. We’re
not counting on one guy. Hopefully, we can continue this streak with Elon
and then into the Conference USA part of the season.”
The Pirates host an Elon team
that beat them back on Feb. 27, 9-6. Elon took two out of three from the
Citadel this weekend to run its record to 17-2 on the season.
Godwin knows that his team
really wants to avenge the earlier loss to the Phoenix.
“Elon’s a good club,” said
Godwin. “They’re still playing well. It’s good to have them back to face
another good club here in our stadium. We really also have to concentrate on
getting ready for league play with Houston coming in this weekend.”
Godwin’s Pirates started the
year at 1-4. ECU lost two out of three to then 2nd-ranked South Carolina.
The Pirates then lost a road game at Elon and dropped that first game of the
Monmouth series.
Asked about the winning
streak, Godwin was quick to think back to that 1-4 start.
“You have to be humble," he
said. "You have to remember back to the 1-4. That will keep you humble. We
can’t get complacent. The season is not eve a third of the way over. We just
have to keep racking up wins and go from there.”
ECU hoops suspense
March Madness for ECU acting
head basketball coach Mack McCarthy takes on a whole different meaning.
ECU Director of Athletics
Terry Holland has said in published reports that he wasn’t in a hurry to
make a decision on the future of Pirate basketball.
Holland was criticized by some
for the way he hired ECU baseball coach Billy Godwin. Godwin was the acting
coach for about two months, before he was named to the job fulltime. One has
to think that worked out pretty nicely.
McCarthy and his staff may
have to spend the month wondering where they’ll be working next season.
If Holland wants to take
his time, that’s fine. But if Coach McCarthy isn’t in the mix, then
Holland needs to let him know.
Whether or not Coach Mack gets
the job fulltime, Holland should be in debt to McCarthy big-time for the way
Coach Mack came in and restored order to a train wreck.
This basketball program was a
mess, and Mack did what he was asked to do, and that’s to show overall
improvement, both on and off the court.
BB
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04/21/2008 07:01:53 PM |
