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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
By Brian Bailey |
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Barely in, but with
new life
By
Brian Bailey
©2010 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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Billy Godwin |
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(Photo ECU SID) |
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East Carolina’s baseball
season will continue.
Like the rest of the
year, it certainly
wasn’t easy.
The Pirates had to come
from behind to salvage
the third game of the
series with Houston. Now
they will head to that
same city for the
Conference USA baseball
tournament starting on
Wednesday.
Things looked bleak all
during the final regular
season series.
The Pirates dropped the
Thursday and Friday
games to the Cougars,
who played their way
into the tournament that
they are hosting. ECU
needed a Saturday win
and some help just to
make the tournament as
the league’s sixth seed
in the six-team field.
A season of frustrations
continued into Saturday
for Coach Billy Godwin.
“That’s all we could
do,” said Godwin when
asked about the victory.
“We didn’t control our
own destiny, which you
never like. All we could
do was to come out and
win and do a little
scoreboard watching."
Saturday morning brought
with it about a dozen
different scenarios
about which six teams
would make the
Conference USA
tournament. Godwin,
though, decided just to
control what he could
control.
“I didn’t go over
scenarios with our guys,
there were so many of
them,” he explained. “I
just talked about coming
out and winning. I saw
the score flash up there
that UCF was up 6-0 and
I was like, we’re down
right here but if we
come back and that score
sticks, we’re in.”
Outfielder Trent
Whitehead said that
score really got the
Pirates going.
“Coach Godwin told us
that if that didn’t get
us going, nothing
would,” said Whitehead.
“I think it got the guys
fired up and we took
care of business.”
Godwin is the first to
say the year didn’t go
as planned. Still, the
season does continue and
that provides a new
beginning of sorts for
this East Carolina
baseball team.
“If you get the
opportunity to get into
the postseason, anything
can happen,” said
Godwin. “We are just
looking to play another
day. Coming off of a win
like this, I think the
guys will be excited to
get another chance. It
will be like a new
season.”
The new six-team format
is a bit of a head
scratcher. The six teams
are divided into two
pods. Each team will
play two “pod” games and
one other game for a
three-team round-robin.
The critical games for
teams are the pod games.
For example, the Pirates
could lose to Rice in
the opener, but if ECU
beats Memphis and
Southern Miss, then the
Pirates will play for
the Conference USA
title.
The “other” game would
be used in a tiebreaker.
However, according to
the league’s Website, a
three-way tie would be
broken by the higher
seed.
It’s like the “non-pod”
game is important, but
it isn’t. Why not invite
eight teams to the
party? Have two pods of
four teams each, play
the three pod games and
have the pod winners
play for the title.
In a league that spends
hundreds of thousands of
dollars to fly Olympic
sports teams all around
the country, can it be
that much more expensive
to send two more teams
to the league’s baseball
tournament?
One Pirate World
Series-bound
Former East Carolina
star and assistant coach
Tommy Eason and his Pitt
Community College
Bulldogs are headed to
the National Junior
College World Series.
Grand Junction,
Colorado, is to Junior
College baseball what
Omaha, Nebraska, is to
Division I baseball.
Eason’s squad swept
Potomac State in a best
of three series to
advance this past
weekend.
Eason is thrilled to be
heading to Colorado, but
he says the work’s not
done yet.
“We’re happy to be the
Eastern District
representative but we’re
looking forward to going
out there and trying to
take care of some
business,” said Eason.
“We’ve got one more
stone to step on. This
team has the capability
and the right mindset
right now.”
Tommy Eason was as tough
of a Pirate as I’ve ever
had the chance to watch.
He was a leader, and
that characteristic is
paying big dividends for
Pitt.
Eason was very emotional
after the victory. I
swear there was a tear
underneath those
sunglasses Saturday
afternoon.
Pitt opens the JUCO
World Series this
Saturday against the
College of Southern
Nevada.
BB
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Brian Bailey.
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05/25/2010 03:14 AM |
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