By
Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Maybe this is what Keith
LeClair envisioned when he left his alma mater for East Carolina:
An NCAA Regional championship game in front of more than 4,500 screaming
Pirateheads. In Greenville. On the ECU campus.
You have to admit that it required a visionary to script that scene when
LeClair arrived prior to the 1998 season. That’s when the Pirates called
Harrington Field home, a facility unfit for any school that aspires
to have a Top 25 program.
But when East Carolina faces South Carolina tonight, it will do so in
the stadium that LeClair built, a place where he laid the foundation for
its construction but never had the opportunity to
coach. It’s a venue that
has an unofficial capacity of over 5,500, but tonight will sound more
like a crowd of 55,000.
Those in attendance will witness the most significant baseball game ever
to be played in Greenville. Win and the Pirates will head to Chapel Hill
for what could be the most significant series in this state’s history.
First the Pirates must finish what on Saturday appeared to be an
improbable task. They must complete the uphill climb of navigating the
loser’s bracket and taking the rubber match against a Southeastern
Conference power.
Now the question is which East Carolina team will face the Gamecocks
tonight? Will it be the one that was thoroughly
pounded by South Carolina on
Saturday, or the one
that built an 8-0 lead Sunday evening and resiliently
withstood a furious USC rally?
Better yet, who will Pirates coach Billy Godwin send to the mound for
the deciding game of this unpredictable regional?
With ECU playing its fifth game in three days, and Godwin fresh out of
his regular starters, the Pirates might have to rely on four or five
arms to hurl them to a Super Regional next weekend. And whichever four
or five take the hill will have to deal some of the best stuff of their
collegiate careers.
Because South Carolina is as dangerous an offensive club as East
Carolina has faced all year, a fact reinforced by the last three innings of last
night’s nail-biter.
Though the Pirates have the firm advantage of playing at home, it’s
tempting to consider them the underdog. On paper, and perhaps even
mentally, they probably are.
Playing five games in five days can take a serious mental and physical
toll, but to do it in three days is almost uncharted waters.
Still, given the way the Pirates fought their way through two
elimination games — one of which they trailed by four and the other in
which they played a team that previously embarrassed them — you have to
like their chances. It’s clear that this is a team filled with grit, and
anything is possible in a game dictated by aluminum bats.
Even so, tonight clearly comes down to pitching. The team that makes the
fewest mistakes with pitch location — and subsequently keeps the ball in
the park — is likely the one that makes it to Chapel Hill.
That the Pirates are even in this scenario is improbable enough. And if
the Pirates win, this weekend should be remembered as one of the most
heroic in ECU baseball history.
It would be fitting for such a scenario to unfold in the stadium that
Coach LeClair built. I just wish he could be here to see it.
