ECU BASEBALL: Season of obstacles leads to reward

East Carolina's ever-resilient baseball program takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Depleted of many of its best players by the 2004 Major League draft and bedeviled by injuries to key members of this year's team, the tradition-steeped program on Monday received a testament of sorts to the national respect it still enjoys.

The NCAA Selection Committee invited ECU to join 63 other teams in the Division I championship playoffs, seeding the Pirates No. 3 in the Tempe, AZ, regional.

News that the season would be extended for Coach Randy Mazey and his players was a tangible measure of accomplishment for a team which relied heavily on newcomers and — wracked by injuries — patched together assorted lineups from week to week, sometimes from game to game.

At one point in early April, the Pirates were 16-13 with a 2-8 conference record, having come out on the short end of all three series they had played against league foes.

The turnaround began the weekend of April 8-10, when ECU captured the final two games in a three-game set against Southern Mississippi. That ignited a drive down the stretch in which the Pirates were 19-11 overall and 16-4 in the league, winning 7 C-USA series in a row.

So, instead of brooding at home over obstacles that stood in their path to the postseason, Mazey and the Bucs will depart Clark-LeClair Stadium today at 9:30 a.m. to see if they can bring some hot bats and sizzling pitching to already-sweltering Tempe.

ECU will face region host and No. 2 seed Arizona State in a first-round game on Friday. Top-seed Coastal Carolina will meet No. 4 seed Nevada-Las Vegas in the region's other pairing that day.

The selection marks the 7th year in a row the Pirates have been picked for postseason play and the 21st time overall the program has been invited to the NCAA Tournament.

In the era before it joined the NCAA, East Carolina won the NAIA national championship in 1961 under Coach Jim Mallory.

Tulane, Texas Christian and Southern Mississippi join the Pirates to form Conference USA's four-team postseason contingent.

The Green Wave will host the New Orleans Regional as the No. 1 national seed, while TCU will be the No. 2 seed in Waco, TX, and Southern Mississippi will be the No. 2 seed in Oxford, MS.

Tulane is the nation's top-ranked team in the Collegiate Baseball poll and is No. 1 in the Baseball America rankings.

ECU's 21 postseason appearances sets the pace for Conference USA members, while Tulane will be in the tournament for the 17th time. Southern Miss has been invited to the playoffs 6 times and TCU's invitation is its fourth.

Houston and South Florida, neither of which made the cut for the 2005 tournament, have received 16 and 10 bids, respectively, over the years.

Only the Southeastern Conference (9), Atlantic Coast Conference(7), Big 12 (5) and Pac-10 (5) had more selections this year than C-USA. No other league had more than two bids.

Current Western Athletic Conference member Rice (41-17), which will join Conference USA on July 1, received an at-large bid to the Baton Rouge Regional. The Owls, who will be making their 11th straight NCAA appearance, will face Northwestern State in their first game on Friday.

The winners of the 16 regionals will advance to eight two-team super-regional pairings the following weekend, with the winners of those best-of-three matchups earning spots in the 56th College World Series, June 17-27, at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, NE.

Information from The Associated Press and Conference USA was used in compiling this report.

At Packard Stadium
Tempe, Ariz.
Friday, June 3
    Game 1 — Arizona State (34-22) vs. East Carolina (35-24), 5 pm
    Game 2 — Coastal Carolina (48-14) vs. UNLV (34-27), 10 pm
Saturday, June 4
    Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 5 pm
    Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 10 pm
Sunday, June 5
    Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 2 pm
    Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 pm
Monday, June 6
    Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 9 pm, if necessary

At Turchin Stadium
New Orleans
Friday, June 3
    Game 1 — Tulane (50-9) vs. Southern University (29-16), 3:30 pm
    Game 2 — Alabama (38-21) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (47-17), 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 4
    Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 3:30 pm
    Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7:30 pm
Sunday, June 5
    Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 3:30 pm
    Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7:30 pm
Monday, June 6
    Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7:30 pm, if necessary

At Swayze Field
Oxford, Miss.
Friday, June 3
    Game 1 — Southern Mississippi (41-19) vs. Oklahoma (33-24), 4 pm
    Game 2 — Mississippi (44-18) vs. Maine (34-17), 8 pm
Saturday, June 4
    Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2 pm
    Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 6 pm
Sunday, June 5
    Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 2 pm
    Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 pm
Monday, June 6
    Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8 pm, if necessary

At Baylor Ballpark
Waco, Texas
Friday, June 3
    Game 1 — Texas Christian (40-18) vs. Stanford (32-23), 3 pm
    Game 2 — Baylor (39-21) vs. Texas-San Antonio (27-32), 8 pm
Saturday, June 4
    Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 3 pm
    Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 8 pm
Sunday, June 5
    Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 3 pm
    Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 8 pm
Monday, June 6
    Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7 pm, if necessary

At Alex Box Stadium
Baton Rouge, La.
Friday, June 3
    Game 1 — LSU (38-20) vs. Marist (33-19), 2 pm
    Game 2 — Rice (41-17) vs. Northwestern State (40-18), 7 pm
Saturday, June 4
    Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2 pm
    Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 pm
Sunday, June 5
    Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 2 pm
    Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7 pm
Monday, June 6
    Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 2 pm, if necessary