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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
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By Brian Bailey |
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Lost weekend dents
postseason drive
©2006 Bonesville.net
East Carolina is still very
much on the bubble as far as the NCAA baseball regionals are concerned. If
the Pirates don’t make the postseason, they can look back at a lost weekend
in Hattiesburg and wonder “what if?”
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What if the Pirates had held
on to that 7-run lead in Friday night’s 11-10 eleven-inning loss to Southern
Miss?
What if the Pirates had held
on to Saturday night’s 5-0 lead?
And if the Pirates had won
those first two games, would it have been East Carolina that pounded out ten
runs on Sunday to sweep the series?
Yes, it’s a case of shoulda,
coulda, woulda for sure. One big long rainout would have been much better
for the record, and the club’s psyche.
The Pirates have 28 wins with
eight games to go. The magic number used to be 40 for wins to make the
tournament, but with the expanded field it is more like 35.
The Pirates still have a shot,
but may have to win their final two Conference USA series and probably need
sweeps.
ECU hosts UAB at Clark-LeClair
this coming weekend. UAB had that horrendous losing streak earlier this
year, but the Blazers won a doubleheader over Memphis this weekend, taking
two out of three in that series.
The Pirates close out the
C-USA regular season at Memphis for three games. Currently, ECU and Memphis
are tied for fifth place in the league at 7-11.
The Pirates also have two
games left with Coastal Carolina, playing this Wednesday in Greenville and
then matching up with Coastal again next Tuesday on the road.
Billy Godwin and company knew
that the Southern Miss series would be difficult. The blown leads, though,
leave a particularly bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Hopefully, we’ll look back in
about a month and consider the Southern Miss series a wake up call.
Unfortunately, we may also look back at it as the knockout punch for the
Pirates postseason plans.
Softball Squad Rallies to make
C-USA tournament
East Carolina’s softball team
won six straight league games and moved up in the standings to make the
C-USA postseason tournament as the fifth seed.
The Pirates play fourth seed
UAB at 12:30 on Thursday in Tulsa, OK. Should they win, they would advance
to play the top seed and host squad Tulsa at 6:30.
The tournament champion
receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Saturday’s C-USA championship
game will be televised live by CSTV.
Also from the softball team,
head coach Tracey Kee has added another Pitt County player to her roster.
North Pitt star Tiffany Shaw will play with East Carolina next year as a
recruited walk-on. Shaw joins former Conley standout Paige Baggett and Rose
ace Kelli Harrell as local products on the East Carolina roster.
Pitt Community College’s
Stacey Andrews, another Rose product, will also join the squad next year.
Shaw is one of my own. As many
of you already know, I coached a traveling fastpitch team for seven years.
As the Carolina Diamonds, we traveled all over the East Coast playing in
very competitive tournaments. Shaw was my shortstop for all seven seasons.
She is like a daughter to me
and I couldn’t be any more pleased that she is a Pirate.
Good luck to the softball team this week in Tulsa!
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02/23/2007 01:33:44 AM |
