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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, June 9, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Omaha still on ECU's
agenda
By
Brian Bailey
©2009 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
East Carolina’s baseball
team arrived in Chapel
Hill on Thursday with
dreams of Omaha and the
College Baseball World
Series.
The Pirates limped home
late Sunday after being
outscored 19-4 in a pair
of losses.
North Carolina beat the
Pirates
10-1 on Saturday
and then
9-3 on Sunday
to sweep the Chapel Hill
Super Regional.
The disappointing part
for everyone, including
the players, coaches and
fans, is that the games
weren’t competitive.
The Pirates had a brief
lead in game one after a
Brandon Henderson homer,
but after that it was
all Tar Heels. I think
Coach Billy Godwin would
agree that his Pirates
could certainly play at
that level.
East Carolina did play
at the level and more in
the two regular season
games. Both games were
close, with the Pirates
shutting out the
Heels 4-0
in Greenville.
Godwin refused to make
any excuses, but the zip
just didn’t seem to be
there. Maybe the five
games in three days in
the previous week's
Greenville Regional took
something out of this
team.
The old adage that good
pitching beats good
hitting
rang true again.
Even though former D.H.
Conley star Alex White
had struggled down the
stretch, he still has an
elite arm. Game two
starter Adam Warren was
another rock.
The Pirates hit White
around pretty good three
years ago in the
regionals. But on this
Saturday, the former
Greenville Little League
star set a career mark
with a dozen strikeouts.
In all, Pirate hitters
fanned 14 times. That’s
14 of the 27 outs in the
game resulting in ECU
hitters failing to get
the ball in play.
The day turned into a
special one for White.
When he was finally
pulled in the 9th, both
North Carolina and ECU
fans gave him a standing
ovation. White said it
especially meant
something to see both
sets of fans on their
feet.
“That’s my hometown.
That’s where I’m from,”
said White. “There were
a lot of people in the
stands who cheer for ECU
that I know. They have
respect for the game and
they know what’s going
on. I’m glad they were
here and that they are
the type of people that
will do that, cheer for
a guy from their
hometown.”
It was certainly a class
gesture by the many
Pirate fans who would
have much rather cheered
for a big ECU victory.
In game two, the Tar
Heels jumped out to the
early lead and really
never looked back. The
game was still somewhat
in doubt when Dustin
Ackley put it away with
a three-run homer in the
6th inning.
That was more then
enough for Warren, the
former New Bern Bear.
Warren scattered eight
hits and gave up three
runs. Most of that
damage was late when the
game was pretty much no
longer in doubt.
Coach Godwin showed the
hurt in his face after
the pair of losses. But
he also showed a look of
determination. Godwin
has a plan, and he hopes
someday everyone will
look back at this super
regional loss as part of
the process.
“Unfortunately, we have
to have experiences such
as these,” said Godwin.
“I think you fail before
you succeed sometimes.
The first year we came
over and we lost here in
the regional, and we
bounced back and made it
to the championship game
last year. This year we
push through and win a
regional.
"We’ve got a good core
of guys coming back.
We’ve got a lot of our
pitchers who will be
back. That’s one of the
things I try to
emphasize in my tenure
at East Carolina, that
we have to roll guys out
there to give us a
shot.”
“I think some of the
experiences like this,
sometimes I say that a
player’s failure is his
best feature," Godwin
continued. "It hurts, it
stings, but I think it’s
an important part of
growing and maturing as
a team and as a
program.”
An outstanding group of
seniors led by the likes
of Brandon Henderson,
Ryan Wood, Drew Schieber
and Stephen Batts took
this program to within a
pair of wins of Omaha.
That’s as close as the
Pirates have come.
Three trips to the Super
Regionals have gotten
the Pirates close.
Omaha, though, will wait
for another season.
That’s the toughest part
of the end of the
season. It’s the
finality of it all.
Baseball season at East
Carolina has always been
one of the best parts of
the year for me. It
starts with frigid
February and ends, in a
good season, in June.
Someday it’ll end in
mid-June in Omaha. That
dream is still very much
alive at East Carolina.
The Pirates took another
step. As long as the
players, the coaches and
the fans all buy in that
Omaha is the goal, it
will happen.
Just not this season.
Congratulations, though,
to Coach Godwin and his
program for a year to
remember.
BB
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06/17/2009 01:22:07 AM |
