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Notes, Quotes and Slants
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Pirate
Notebook No. 69
Monday, May 27, 2002
By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist |
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Pirates
had more to fight for than a title
©2002 Bonesville.net
Story played out
like a movie
KINSTON Add the final chapter to the
Pirates' storybook run through the Conference USA tournament. Paint it in
the deepest shade of purple, and bind it in 24-karat gold.
East Carolina, which prior to Wednesday was
mired in a late-season slump, defied all logic Sunday, shaking off its middle-of-the-pack finish during the regular season to top
7th-ranked Houston 4-0 for the league crown.
Battling adversity, both on the field and
off, the Pirates never threw in the towel on the 2002 season. Showing the grit and determination of its ailing coach
Keith LeClair ECU gave an awe-inspiring performance, one
worthy of an Oscar-caliber movie.
After the Pirates applied the finishing
touches to their masterpiece victory, they led the crowd of 3,511 in a
tear-jerking chant, honoring their skipper with a repetitious one-word cheer
of "Keith!"
"With our coach in the situation that he's
in," right fielder Ryan Jones said, "there's no way we could have given up,
with everything he's been through, and everything he's doing right now.
He's fighting for his life, so we had to fight as hard as we could for him."
With the win, East Carolina (41-18-1)
locked up the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins on
Friday. The loss by Houston (44-15) ended an 11-game winning streak by the
Cougars, who figure to be a No. 1 seed when the NCAA announces the
tournament pairings later today.
"It was an outstanding college baseball
game, from the first pitch to the last," ECU assistant coach Kevin McMullan
said. "The kids were really, really focused and refocused after obviously
not the type of finish we would have liked at the end of the regular
season. But, that's what the postseason is all about we preach it to
our kids all the time.
"I'm really proud of these guys. Guys that
are not having the type of years they would have liked have believed in the
team concept and have done what we've asked."
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Conference
USA's Baseball Champions, the East Carolina Pirates, hoist the
title trophy and a sign tribute to their ailing head coach,
Keith LeClair, after blanking No. 1 seed Houston, 4-0, Sunday
at Kinston's Grainger Stadium for the crown. It's the first
team championship for ECU in any sport since entering the
league. |
Photo: Denny
O'Brien. ©2002 Bonesville.net. |
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None shined brighter Sunday than Jones, the
unlikely hero for the unlikely championship team. The sophomore right fielder
struggled throughout much of the season, but turned things around in the
tournament, capping it off with a 2-3, three-RBI performance against the
Cougars, including a dramatic two-run homer in the eighth off reliever
Nathan Mitchell to seal the deal for the Pirates.
Pinch hitter Daniel Vick singled home
Warren Gaspar later in the inning to give the Pirates an insurance run
against the hard-hitting Cougars.
"I got down two strikes," Jones said of his
two-run blast. "I was just trying to compete and put (the ball)
in play as (well) as I could. Fortunately, he hung one up a little bit
and I got a good piece of it.
"Today, I actually got the opportunity to
drive in some runs for my team, and give us a nice little lead going into
the last inning."
Davey Penny (8-3) went six innings for the
Pirates to pick up his eighth win of the year. Penny scattered seven hits,
while walking two and striking out five before making way for reliever Neal
Sears, who pitched the final three innings to record his fifth save of the
year.
Sears, who made three appearances during
the week, earned All-Tournament honors, joining Jones, Sam Narron, and
Darryl Lawhorn, who was named the tournament's MVP after going 8-16 on the
week.
"When I come in, that is my job," Sears
said. "Come in and just close the door. I love getting the opportunity
it was a blast. Davey Penny did an outstanding job for us today. He kept
us in the ballgame."
Despite yielding seven hits, Penny kept
Houston's two best hitters Chris Snyder and Brett Cooley at bay for
much of the day. The dynamic duo entered Sunday's game with a combined 31
home runs, but managed just one hit a single by Synder in the third.
Penny's performance was even more notably impressive
considering the breezy conditions that favored the Cougars' long-ball tandem.
"I said a little prayer before every pitch," Penny said. "I bared
down when I needed to. They've got some big guys that swing some
big sticks. We were just trying to keep the ball down, and work our
breaking balls away."
Houston issued serious scoring threats in
the third, fourth, and sixth innings, but each time, Penny managed to pitch
his way out of trouble, thanks to the solid play of second baseman Jedd
Sorenson.
In the third and fourth innings, Sorenson
was spectacular in turning double plays to end each of the innings. His sensational
sliding catch and heads-up throw to the plate prevented the Cougars from
scratching the surface in the sixth.
"He made a great play, because we had a
hit-and-run on, and he broke to the bag, and then had to really turn his
direction to make that catch," Houston head coach Rayner Noble said. "I
think that was extremely pivotal in the game that play right there."
Sorenson struggled early in the game,
allowing Thanos Papavasilio to reach base on a routine ground ball to lead
off the second inning, then booting a ball in the third off the bat of Keith
Whatley. But neither mistake proved costly, as Sorenson more than made up
for the mistakes with his splendid play.
"Jedd's a blue collar guy," McMullan said. "He made
outstanding plays today.
"He's a guy that thinks he's going to be the man. We have a thing
coming out of the dugout where we say 'Who wants the ball?' He raises
his hand like he's a church school kid gotta go to
the bathroom every time. He has a lot of confidence and never gets down.
He came up big for us today."
The Pirates got their first run in the
fifth when Ryan Jones looped a two-out, two-strike single into right field
to drive in catcher Clatyon McCullough, who reached on a walk. McCullough
had moved to third on the first hit off losing pitcher Danny Zell (7-1) a
single by short stop Luke Cherry before scoring on Jones' first of two
hits.
The single by Jones sent Zell to the
showers, as reliever Mitchell retired pinch hitter Jamie Paige to end the
inning.
"We focus on getting better everyday, but we talk about postseason play,"
McMullan said. "That's hopefully why these kids came to East Carolina.
"You can ask every one of them, and I'm
sure they'll tell you the same thing. They want to go to Omaha, and that's
what we preach when we sell this program. Obviously, there's steps in that
road. Today was the first part in those steps."
The Pirates will take their next step along
that postseason journey Friday. They will learn later today just when
and where that will take place.
C-USA teams play waiting game
Several teams entered the C-USA tournament
on the NCAA bubble, including East Carolina. With the Pirates winning the
conference tournament yesterday, the league is now almost assured of getting
three bids, with Houston a solid favorite to claim a No. 1 seed, while
Louisville is a safe bet to secure at least a No. 3.
As for the rest, they'll have to wait until
this afternoon when the NCAA announces its selections, which will be
interesting with the recent changes in the tournament's setup.
The NCAA revamped its selection process
this season, seeking to keep teams closer to home. The NCAA will now allow
conference foes to play in the same regional, a rule that wasn't necessarily
embraced by Noble.
"It's debatable whether it's good or bad," Noble said. "But, I
don't like what the NCAA is doing, especially when they're putting teams
from the same conference in the same regional. I just don't like that.
"The NCAA is into making money, there's no
doubt about that. That's why we're doing all of this regionalizing
everything."
The new process could throw a new kink into
the equation, considering college baseball's strongest programs are located
south of the Mason-Dixon. Experts have suggested the northern regions could
be considerably weaker, and that many of the south's bubble teams could get
left out as a consequence.
Nonetheless, the coaches in Kinston this
past week suggested their league should be well represented come Selection
Monday, due largely to the conference's high RPI.
"I think there are seven teams in this
league that could go to the NCAA tournament, and play well, win a game, win
two games, and even win the regional," said South Florida head coach Eddie
Cardieri. "Realistically, there's probably six that deserve to go,
because I'm not sure that TCU's overall record is good enough for them to
go.
"But, the other six teams, positively, can
go. What do I think is going to happen? I think we're going to get five.
So much of that has to do with in these tournaments teams that otherwise
wouldn't get a bid win them and spots start to get taken up."
Tulane head coach Rick Jones is encouraged
about the Green Wave's chances at securing an at-large bid because of
his team's solid play during the latter part of the season.
"The NCAA talks about that as being part of
the criteria," Jones said. "Since we've gotten healthier, we've been a
pretty doggone good club.
"The NCAA tournament with a four-team
format, or a Super Regional where it's best two out of three we can be as
challenging as anybody right now because we've got a pretty solid lineup,
and we're starting to score. If you took the last 15-20 ballgames, and
threw that in there, I think we'd be as representative as any team in the
country.
"I told our guys that I think we might be
on the front side of the bubble, but I don't think we're off it. I think
we're certainly a viable option."
Pirate partisans mattered in Grainger
Did the fans have an impact in Kinston this
past week? Cardieri sure thinks so.
When asked about the vocal crowd following
South Florida's 3-2 loss to ECU in the tournament semifinals, the Golden Bulls
17-year head coach had nothing but high praise for the folks clad in purple
and gold.
"If you're a player at East Carolina, it's
tremendous," Cardieri said. "Believe me, the crowd plays an
important role in baseball. Don't think it doesn't. Home field
plays an important role. There is no doubt about it.
"They're good fans. They're good baseball
fans. It's reminiscent of LSU when we played at LSU a few years back.
In fact, it's the same colors."
McCullough said following the Pirates' win
over Houston that the 3,500-plus diehards that packed Grainger was an
important part of the Pirates' championship equation.
"Without them, you don't know what could have happened," McCullough said.
"They kept us in it when the game was close.
"We didn't get any hits through the first
five innings and they never gave up on us. Then, we got a few runs, and
they got energized. That's part of the reason we won this tournament is
because of those people."
At the car wash
It's not unusual for players to give their
head coach a Gatorade shower following a marquee victory. But it isn't
every day that you see a team dump the cooler on the coach's car.
With LeClair unable to sit in the dugout
during games, due to the effects of Lou Gehrig's Disease, the Pirates'
fourth-year head coach viewed every game of the championship run from a
two-toned blue van parked in front of the visiting bullpen.
So, since the jubilant Bucs couldn't shower LeClair following their
win over Houston Sunday, they did the next best thing they hosed the van.
"Basically, Davey (Penny) just walked up to
me and was like, 'Neal, let's run down and dump the cooler on the van,'"
Sears said. "At first, I was kinda like 'I don't know, man, it's kinda out
there. All of a sudden, I looked over and Bryant Ward was like 'Yeah, let's
do it!' So, we got the cooler, and took off down the right field line."
According to McMullan, such behavior isn't
out of the ordinary for the Pirates' winning pitcher, who goes out of his
way to be different, for different's sake.
"That's routine David Penny," McMullan
said. "He'll try to wear flip-flops on every away trip. If it's not meant
to be done, he'll try to do it."
One thing's for certain, the Pirate
prankster hurled East Carolina to its biggest victory of the season. And
even McMullan would have to admit, in this case, it did seem like it was meant to be.
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02/23/2007 01:46:25 AM
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