A funny thing happened in Greenville last Monday. Life proceeded without a hitch.

Judging by the reaction following East Carolina’s Super Regional loss to South Carolina, that was anything but certain. Long lines at the Tar River Bridge and a shortage of ibuprofen seemed a higher probability.

At last check, though, there were no reports of record harvests of bodies from the muddy Tar. Nor was there a sudden boon at the local CVS.

About the only thing that persisted was debate about a key coaching decision, which is standard fan protocol following a heartbreaking loss. Even that eventually subsided and focus shifted to the Pirates’ prospects for Omaha in 2005.

"We're going to go home tonight and start preparing on how to get to Omaha next year," Pirates coach Randy Mazey said following the Pirates’ deciding Game Two loss to South Carolina in the NCAA Super Regional. "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."

He shouldn’t.

A few key names and numbers will change, but the results should be familiar. When the ink dries on the Pirates’ 2005 season, the tally sheet should read something like this:

Minimum of 40 wins, a seventh-straight NCAA tournament appearance, Top 25 finish, and a spot among the top three in tough Conference USA. That is the level at which East Carolina now competes on an annual basis — a plateau on which few programs currently reside.

But that isn’t a status the Pirates earned overnight.

Long before the inauguration of aluminum bats, East Carolina was evolving into a baseball factory. Though the constituency hitched its emotional wagon and checkbook to football, ECU found greater athletics success on the diamond.

Former Pirates coach Gary Overton maintained that strong foundation. The vision of his successor — Keith LeClair — boosted the program another level up the baseball food chain. It’s a good bet that Mazey’s determination will carry the torch to the "Greatest Show on Dirt."

The tools certainly are in place.

Beginning next season, East Carolina finally will have a venue fitting for a program of its stature. With Mazey already possessing the reputation for being a master recruiter, arming him with a first-class facility is like pumping gasoline onto an inferno.

In Greenville, ECU has the equivalent of a farm system on which it can count to produce one or two blue-chippers per year. Rare occasions when a highly pursued Greenville product chooses a different school could become almost extinct.

The schedule also will receive a much-needed boost with the addition of Rice and Central Florida to C-USA, along with the loss of Charlotte, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Saint Louis. The annual Keith LeClair Invitational should continue to attract top non-conference competition like Arizona State to the fold.

An improved schedule means a better RPI, which would pay huge dividends when the NCAA selection committee hands out national seeds.

All that's missing is a little more diversity on offense and a decent break or two. The latter is out of ECU’s control.

“You have to catch a break,” LeClair said back in 2002. “It seems that we haven't quite yet caught that break.

“On the same token, though, you have to make your own breaks, and we haven't quite gotten over that hump of making the big pitch, or getting the big hit, or making that big play when we have to. It comes down to performing.”

Basically, there is no margin for error in the postseason. Just ask Stanford.

While the Pirates didn’t commit an error in the 2004 Super Regional, there were a few mental lapses that proved crucial.

Arguably the best defensive catcher in ECU history, John Poppert took a brief nap in the fourth inning of Game One, allowing Bryan Triplett to advance from first to third and eventually break a scoreless deadlock. In Game Two, Mark Minicozzi didn’t break on Jamie Paige’s two-out single, which would have pushed the Pirates’ lead to 4-2.

Those are just a pair of isolated examples that led to the Pirates’ derailed quest for Omaha this year. But history and logic suggests ECU will have plenty of future chances to finish its task.