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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, May 19, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Perfect week positions ECU for host
role
By
Brian Bailey
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Just last week, former
East Carolina coach Gary
Overton
spelled it out for us.
“Coach O” is on the NCAA
baseball tournament
committee.
Overton said last week
that the Pirates had to
do one of two things to
improve their odds of
hosting an NCAA
Regional. They either
had to either win the
Conference USA regular
season title or take
home the tournament
championship.
Coach Billy Godwin has
preached the same sermon
all year long. He just
wanted his Pirates to
take care of business
and let the chips land
where they land.
East Carolina opened its
final week of the
regular season by
blasting UNC-Wilmington
on the road. The Pirates
then returned home to
host Memphis for a
three-game series.
Godwin says his club was
pressing in the first
game against the Tigers.
The Pirates entered the
weekend a game behind
Rice for the regular
season championship.
East Carolina trailed
4-0 until the 7th
inning. Memphis lefty
Brach Davis totally
frustrated the Pirate
hitters all night.
Finally Dustin
Harrington broke through
with a leadoff home run.
Two batters later Trent
Whitehead pulled a shot
down the right field
line for a three-run
home run.
That shot opened the
door, and East Carolina
never looked back in the
series.
The home run was not
only crucial to the
game; it proved critical
on the road to the
regular season
championship.
While the Pirates were
rallying on Thursday
night, UAB was opening
itsr series with Rice
with an upset victory.
The Pirates and Owls
were tied for the league
lead with two games to
go.
Friday was a wash for
the frontrunners, with
both East Carolina and
Rice coming out
victorious.
Saturday was a much
different story. East
Carolina did its part,
scoring early and often
in rolling to another
win to clinch at least a
share of the title.
The Pirates weren’t
getting much help from
Birmingham early. Rice
took a 9-1 lead into the
bottom of the sixth.
From there, though, the
Blazers erupted for 14
runs in their last four
at bats and beat the
Owls 15-12.
The combination of
Pirate wins and Owl
losses gave East
Carolina its first
Conference USA baseball
championship since 2004.
“This is just the
beginning,” said Coach
Godwin. “That’s the
attitude I want our team
to have. There is still
a lot of baseball to
play. We’ve got bigger
goals and we need to go
into the Conference USA
tournament and play
well.”
Godwin knows his club is
in the mix for possibly
hosting that first-ever
regional at Clark-LeClair
Stadium.
“Our resume is what it
is,” said Godwin. “We
can only control what we
can do. We have played
well down the stretch
and we have beaten some
good teams.”
“I certainly think
Conference USA is an
elite baseball league.
We did win a regular
season championship in
Conference USA. We need
to go to the tournament
and play well. We know
that. We can’t go there
and fall on our face.
"I think things are
lined up that we should
be under strong
consideration for
hosting," Godwin added,
"especially with our
facilities and our fan
base. This is why this
stadium was built.”
East Carolina opens with
Central Florida on
Wednesday. The Pirates
swept the Knights in
Greenville this year.
“They aren’t the same
team now that we saw
earlier,” said Godwin.
“They’ve really gotten
better throughout the
season.”
There were some
fireworks in the series
finale between East
Carolina and UCF.
Stephen Batts hit a
monster home run and
flipped his bat to try
and fire up his team.
Batts actually fired up
both teams, and there
were fires breaking out
all over the place.
The best argument was by
the UCF dugout, when
East Carolina first base
coach Tommy Atkinson and
former Pirate and
current UCF assistant
coach Cliff Godwin went
nose to nose. Cooler
heads did prevail and
there were no ejections.
Still, it was great
baseball drama on a
Sunday morning in
Greenville.
Hopefully, there won’t
be any drama early in
the Conference USA
tournament. The Pirates
will most likely go with
Chris Heston in the
opening game.
“That’s what we’re
thinking right now,”
said Godwin. “We’re
going to look at
match-ups, but Heston
has won a bunch of
opening games for us
this year.”
It all starts
Wednesday afternoon in
Hattiesburg.
Championship Sunday
includes the
announcement of the host
sights for the NCAA
tournament.
The Pirates are close.
Hosting an NCAA regional
is certainly in sight.
With each win the
Pirates get that much
closer to calling Clark-LeClair
Stadium home for the
NCAA Regionals.
BB
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