By now we should have a firm handle on East Carolina's weaknesses across the diamond. But with the postseason quickly approaching, I'm still searching.

Typically the protocol in early May is to identify the areas in which a team must improve to make a legitimate Omaha run. Either Pirates coach Randy Mazey long ago addressed those concerns or the match-ups have sufficiently camouflaged them.

Given the strength of Conference USA and the Pirates' demanding non-league schedule, my money is on the former.

Around the horn, ECU is a club that lacks a gaping hole. From pitching to hitting, the bullpen to the bench, the Pirates are as balanced as a meal in Dr. Phil's weight loss solution. The Pirates are talented and deep, powerful and fast, solid on the hill and in the field.

Based purely on personnel, East Carolina has the makeup of a national title contender. Even better, the Pirates currently are playing at a championship level.

The only question is can they maintain the pace that has produced a school and Conference USA record 19 consecutive wins once the postseason begins?

Much of that will depend on the intangibles.

More than any other sport, baseball is a game in which talent isn't always the deciding factor. If that were the case, Chipper Jones would have a fist full of rings instead of one.

Everything from unforeseen injuries to untimely slumps have been known to derail a team's quest for a crown. That goes without mentioning the dominance a top-flight ace can have over a lineup of sluggers on any given day.

Such is the cruel nature of a game ruled by percentages.

In that regard, East Carolina has excelled in all the right ones and at the right time. When pitching isn't on target, the Pirates overcome it with hitting. On rare occasions when the offense sputters, ECU counters with a gem from its starting pitcher and wizardry in the field.

It's almost as if Mazey has a crystal ball mounted in the dugout. Perhaps he was staring into it March 26, the night he was ejected in Memphis and the last time the Pirates suffered a defeat.

(If you don't think that has anything to do with East Carolina's current streak, then maybe I also could interest you in some property along the Antarctica coast.)

From the opening series, it was obvious that Mazey's second club would be much better than his first. Starting pitchers Brody Taylor and Greg Bunn have been fairly consistent, proving interchangeable at the top of the rotation. And while the bullpen lacks a dominant force, pitching coach Tommy Eason has built strength in numbers.

Offensively, the Pirates have yet to endure a stretch during which more than one key bat was in a slump. That is, of course, unless you characterize Darryl Lawhorn's sub-par season — by his lofty standards — as a year-long drought.

Heck, even when injuries hit Taylor and Ryan Jones, Mazey and his staff have shown the ingenuity to plug the holes, an encouraging thought with the postseason grind on the horizon. At some point, you have to figure that a non-regular again will have to emerge when needed and make a significant contribution for East Carolina to earn a CWS berth.

But that shouldn't be a major concern. Not only does ECU possess the depth of an Omaha entry, but the mental tools and chemistry, too. Regardless of the score, the Pirates maintain their focus and intensity, to which a bushel of late-inning rallies will attest.

Above all, though, East Carolina displays the type of enthusiasm and love for the game with which the sport was meant to be played. As far as teammates go, the Pirates seem to be following the script in David Halberstam's best-seller.

The road to Omaha is paved principally with those key ingredients. At this stage, it looks like the Pirates have more than enough fuel to get there.

Duke dilemma addressed

Apples to apples? NCHSAA executive director Charlie Adams says that depends on what you are comparing.

If it is Duke's basketball conflict with the state finals in high school football and East Carolina's scheduling of a Friday night football game, then he says the answer is a resounding no.

If it is the Duke dilemma and ECU's scheduling blunder in basketball in 2003 — the Pirates scheduled a basketball game that conflicted with the high school basketball Eastern Regionals — he says the two go hand in hand.

"The (football) situation was not the same by any means," Adams said. "It was kind of like when we played at East Carolina two years ago (in basketball) and East Carolina ended up with a game on the Saturday at the home of our Eastern Regionals.

"What happened was, we had to start the whole thing earlier, and then we had to go later (after the ECU basketball game) to avoid that conflict. We had the same problem that we had with Duke, that we did with Wake Forest in basketball. And we see that as entirely different than somebody coming in and playing on Friday night. We had several options in Durham. We didn't have to play on Sunday... we chose to."

Adams admits he received his share of e-mails from Pirates fans following Duke's scheduling snafu. The gist of them was that he treated Duke far more favorably than his alma mater.

However, Adams holds firm on his stance that the two situations were entirely different, and also points out that East Carolina received similar treatment to Duke the first time it scheduled a Friday night game.

"The first time at East Carolina, it was just some telephone conversations and working the problem out," Adams said. "Over here at Duke, the same thing. We had telephone conversations and went over there and looked at all of our possibilities."

Championship focus misguided?

Even with East Carolina set to become the home for Eastern Regional play in football, some Pirates fans still demand the opportunity to host a state championship.

With ECU the only Division I in-state school that doesn't host a state title, some supporters feel East Carolina is at a recruiting disadvantage. However, Adams says the advantages of hosting high school events are more in the recruitment of students, an idea he borrowed from William Friday.

"Bill Friday years ago made the best statement on this," Adams said. "He said, 'Playing at these college sites, the recruiting aspects of athletes is overblown.'

"He said, 'Bringing in the students from all over the state onto the campus is underblown.' That's where the real advantage is and I tend to agree with him."

By bringing high school students in from across the East, Adams says it could peak interest in attending ECU, but that doesn't stop fans from focusing on the impact it could have on the athletes.

"Of course, in the minds of East Carolina, State, Carolina, and these schools, they think it is a huge recruiting advantage," Adams said. "We've never gotten into that mindset. We've just said we're trying to put our games in the best facilities, give our kids a chance to raise the bar in football."

In fact, to extinguish that notion, the NCHSAA performed a study to see if hosting state championship games provided a definite recruiting advantage for one school over the other.

The result? Based largely on the number of recruits who sign with in-state schools, there is no direct correlation between the two.