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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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By Brian Bailey |
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One rally shy of an ideal
weekend
©2006 Bonesville.net
Trailing Marshall 5-3 in the
9th inning on Sunday, it appeared as if the Pirates had the Thundering Herd
just where they wanted them.
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Replay the archive
of Monday night's Brian Bailey Show, with guest
East Carolina baseball coach Billy Godwin. |
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Unfortunately, Cinderella took
Sunday off. There would be no miraculous comeback in the third game of the
series.
Games one and two featured
identical 10-9 Pirate wins. The games may have been identical in the final
score, but the nature of the games was anything but the same.
On Friday night, East Carolina
fell behind 8-0 with its ace, T.J. Hose on the hill. The Pirates chipped
away at that lead, and then won the game as freshman Brandon Henderson went
5-5. Henderson drove in the tying run and later scored the game winner in
the bottom of the 9th.
For his efforts this past
week, Henderson was named as the C-USA Hitter of the Week.
Saturday’s game was originally
scheduled for 6 p.m. It was then moved up to beat the rain at 1 p.m., and
then moved back closer to the original time because the rains came early.
Again, East Carolina fell
behind, but again, the Pirates clawed their way back. This time the Pirates
poured it on with nine runs in the final four innings, capped off by Ryan
Tousley’s two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the ninth. Again, the
Pirates delivered in their last at-bat.
“They were both 10-9 wins, but
they were very different,” said Pirate Coach Billy Godwin. “We dug ourselves
such a hole on Friday night. Then, we came all the way back. We just kept
chipping away.
"On Saturday we had nothing
going, down 9-7. Then we came up with four straight hits and won the game.
It was amazing.”
East Carolina is off this week
until nationally-ranked Tulane comes to town for the weekend. We say it
every weekend, but again, this is a critical Conference USA baseball series.
The Pirates are literally playing for their postseason lives each and every
time out.
“This will be another big
series,” said Godwin. “They’re battling for position, just like we are. This
may be a little bit of a down year for what they expect at Tulane, but they
are still very good. It will be a tough series, for sure.”
The Pirates hope to have the
services of Jake Smith this weekend. Coach Godwin says Smith is about 80
percent right now, and he’ll take this week to get healthier.
“We need to get him back to
where he’s 90-95 percent,” said Godwin. “We thought about pinch-hitting with
him last weekend, but we just didn’t want to do anything to slow down his
progress.”
The Pirates had hoped to sweep
the Marshall series, but all things considered this ECU team will take the
series win and run.
The Pirates have this week off
for exams, and then host the Green Wave for the weekend.
Let’s hope Cinderella sticks
around for the entire weekend, if needed. Mother Nature can take the weekend
off.
Whimper impresses
This should be an exciting
weekend for former East Carolina offensive lineman Guy Whimper.
The Havelock native is
projected to go as high as the third round this weekend. The Dallas Morning
News says Whimper is “the jack of all trades” in the draft.
Whimper started eight games at
defensive end and one at linebacker in 2003, six games at tight end in 2004,
then nine games at right tackle and one at left tackle in 2005.
Scott Wright’s Draft Countdown
says “some team may gamble on his potential much earlier then you would
anticipate.”
Scott Wright’s Draft Combine
is advertised as the most popular draft site in the world.
Whimper is described on
several sites as a player on the rise. His ability to adapt to several
different positions during his collegiate career should pay big dividends
beginning this weekend.
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02/23/2007 01:33:40 AM |
