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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
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By Brian Bailey |
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Maybe it wasn't so bad after
all
By Brian Bailey
©2007 Bonesville.net
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Many close to the East
Carolina women’s basketball program said they thought Rutgers was an elite
team after the Lady Pirates' first round loss in the NCAA Tournament.
They turned out to be right.
Rutgers turned out to be a
team on a mission. It just so happens that the mission started against East
Carolina.
Rutgers totally dominated the
Lady Pirates, holding ECU to just 34 points on 16 percent shooting from the
field in that 77-34 win.
The Scarlet Knights stunned
top ranked Duke in the round of 16, and then went to work Sunday night in
the Final Four in Cleveland.
Rutgers advanced to the
national championship game with Sunday night’s 59-35 win over LSU. The 35
points was the fewest ever scored in a women’s Final Four. Matee Ajavon
paved the way with 16 points, including 4 three pointers.
Ajavaon had 20 points in that
first round game against East Carolina.
All of this came from a team
that opened the year at 2-4. Coach Vivian Stringer was so upset with her
team’s play, that she took their locker room away from them at one point.
Rutgers will face Tennessee in
Tuesday night’s national championship game. The Scarlet
Knights will be going for the school’s first national title since 1949 when
Rutgers shared the fencing national championship with Army.
I bet there will be several
from East Carolina watching on Tuesday night.
The experience in playing a
team as good as Rutgers, despite the loss, should pay dividends down the
road.
Big week for Buc baseball
Give East Carolina credit for
rallying to salvage the third game of their series with Tulane on Sunday.
The Pirates had plenty of
chances in Friday night’s game, but lost a close one. Saturday wasn’t close,
and Sunday had that same feeling before the Pirates rallied.
Ryan Tousley was 5-5 in
Sunday’s win. He had a two-run home run and drove in four for the game. For
the week, Tousley hit .471 with two home runs and seven RBI's.
The hottest Pirate hitter is
Dale Mollenhauer. He hit .611 for the week with two doubles, a triple, seven
runs scored and a couple of RBI. Mollenhauer went 4-5 in Sunday’s 11-7 win
at Tulane.
The Pirates were 2-2 for the week, beating UNC-Wilmington before losing the
two out of three to Tulane. Those losses
dropped the Pirates in the polls just a bit.
East Carolina is now ranked
22nd by Baseball America, that’s down from 19th. ECU is also ranked 24th by
the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 26th by Collegiate Baseball.
This week, the Pirates look
for some revenge against North Carolina State. The Wolfpack is actually the
last team to beat East Carolina in Clark-LeClair Stadium.
This weekend, Clark-LeClair
should be rocking with Rice in town for a three game series. The Owls are
ranked 14th in by Collegiate Baseball.
The weather should be nice and
the park should be jumping. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know what
to do with myself without baseball at Clark-LeClair this weekend.
Thankfully, the Pirates return
home on Friday for what should be another outstanding weekend of baseball!
BB
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04/21/2008 07:02:47 PM |
