When in doubt, play by the percentages. That's the cruel lesson East Carolina coach Randy Mazey can learn from the Pirates' Super Regional loss to South Carolina this weekend.

In the ongoing game of postseason chess, Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner outfoxed his younger rival by sticking to the basics. Mazey ignored the baseball gods, and they responded angrily.

Tanner's reward is a third-consecutive trip to the College World Series, while the punishment for Mazey is an off-season spent pondering the 'What ifs'.

"Again, in retrospect, you look back and second guess yourself all the time," Mazey said of his decision to pull Kevin Rhodes and bring Trevor Lawhorn to the mound in the eighth inning of the Sunday loss that halted ECU's journey to Omaha.

 " ... Kevin's a lot better against right-handed hitters than he is against left-handed hitters," said Mazey. "It was a situation where it was a left-handed hitter up and Trevor's got a tremendous changeup. And that was the match-up we were looking for.

"The scouting report said that (Campbell) struggles with changeups. That's the match-up we wanted and Trevor got the strikeout, which was big. It just didn't work out after that."

That's one way of putting it. Another is to examine the situation more closely.

The Pirates, clinging to a one-run lead, were five outs away from forcing a deciding game three. Reliever Rhodes had the powerful Gamecocks off balance and was in full command to that point. On top of that, ECU had two fresh arms — one a lefty — in the pen waiting for the call.

But instead of calling for a pitcher who spent all season auditioning for that very moment, Mazey went with a second baseman who logged one inning on the mound against a borderline Division I team. Unless, of course, you count a few intrasquad scrimmages.

Not what you would call pressure situations.

"You go to prime-time players to make plays," Tanner said. "He's a guy who could have come up big."

At the plate, maybe. Truthfully, Tanner never makes that move. What the Gamecocks coach did was put on a coaching clinic. Immediately following the pitching change, Tanner sent runners and kept the pressure on the Pirates greenhorn hurler.

In fact, almost every move he made in the two-game sweep put South Carolina a step closer to Omaha and East Carolina closer to home.

"We're going to go home tonight and start preparing on how to get to Omaha next year," Mazey said. "A lot of people might think this was a successful season — and this team may go down in history as one of the great Pirate teams ever — but ask any guy in uniform right now if he feels this has been successful, and they'll all say the same thing — that it hasn't been.

"We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a bright future at East Carolina. I've got no reason to believe we won't be in this situation again next year."

Take nothing away from Mazey and East Carolina's 51-season. If anything, the Pirates' Super Regional loss to South Carolina should serve as a measuring stick for the program.

But next time, Mazey ought to play it by the book.

Mazey got more than an earful from the Gamecocks faithful this weekend. What did you expect?

The Pirates coach launched a war of words against South Carolina fans in the media earlier in the week and reiterated his dislike for them following the Pirates' loss Sunday.

"I don't have much admiration for the fans out here based on my history with them," said Mazey, a former standout for Clemson. "It made it look like I was trying to take the attention off my team, but I would say the majority of it was because (I don't like them).

"They sit up there and they yell and they yell and they yell at the guys. I don't mind when they yell at me. But to sit up there and yell at guys who are out there battling as hard as they are? Most of the people who were yelling have never put a uniform on in their lives. I don't understand that, nor will I ever understand it."

Mazey followed that by tipping his hat to Tanner and his team for earning a third-consecutive trip to Omaha.

"I have a ton of respect for Coach Tanner and his staff and all the players," Mazey said. "They've got a great thing going here and they deserve to be in Omaha. It's their third straight year.

"There's a lot to be said for experience. They've been in these Super Regionals before, they've hosted them before, so they know how to win them. This experience is really going to help us in the future when we get in our next Super Regional. We can always reflect back and see what we've got to do to win the next one."

Plenty of debate has surrounded East Carolina's seeding in the NCAA tournament. After recording 48 wins in the regular season and finishing in the top 10 in all four major polls, the Pirates drew the No. 15 seed in the 64-team field, forcing them to play at South Carolina in the best-of-three Super Regional series.

Mazey said following the Pirates' loss Sunday that the importance of hosting can't be overlooked — and that playing in Conference USA likely penalized ECU at seeding time.

"In our program, we've talked all the time about the importance of hosting Regionals and Super Regionals," Mazey said. "That's very evident playing in front of your home crowd — you play with a ton of confidence.

"You look at the season we had, we didn't get a national seed. You almost think we almost have to go undefeated to get a national seed with the conference we're in."

C-USA received four NCAA bids, down from the previous two seasons. By comparison, the SEC had nine, three of which hosted a Super Regional series.

Pirates stack up

Speaking of the SEC, the CWS field will look a lot like the group the Gamecocks swept in its league tournament. Including South Carolina, four SEC schools will make the pilgrimage to Omaha this week.

Tanner said facing Omaha-quality competition on a weekly basis helped prepare his team for the postseason run.

"I tell our guys all the time that we're going to go through a tremendous battle during the regular season," Tanner said. "If you can survive it, you get in the postseason and you've got a good chance. You're going to play some of the best teams in the country.

"I think going into our series with East Carolina, we were 19-11 against Top 25 teams. That's a lot of games against that kind of schedule. East Carolina, I believe, was 4-3. Our league is outstanding. ...You feel like you can win if you get to this point, because you don't play any better opponents than you play in our league. A lot of people get tired of hearing about SEC baseball, but it's really good."

So where does East Carolina fall?

"They're very good," Tanner said. "There's no question about it. Coach Mazey and I chatted about it a little bit the other day on the field.

"They would win their share in our league. ...They would be a team that would be in the hunt for sure. They have righties and lefties. They've got quality hitters in the middle. They're a very good team."

Lawhorn inclined to stay

Much of ECU's success next season could depend on the status of several underclassmen who were selected in last week's Major League draft. Among them was Lawhorn, who was selected in the ninth round by the Cincinnati Reds.

Lawhorn, a transfer from nearby Barton College and just a sophomore, hinted Sunday that he is likely to return next season.

"I haven't really thought about that," Lawhorn said. "Right now, I'm coming back. I'm going to go play in the (Cape Cod League) and we'll see what goes on from there. But I'm pretty sure for right now that I'm going to come back and play my junior year."

Smart move. By returning for his junior season, Lawhorn could improve his stock without losing his negotiating power.