Greenville will be one of 16 sites for the upcoming NCAA Regionals as the East Carolina baseball team was announced as a host on Sunday night.
This will be the sixth time in Clark-LeClair Stadium history that the ballpark will serve as a host site for the opening round of the postseason.
Only the 16 host teams were announced on Sunday, and the rest of the field will be revealed during Monday’s selection show. There, the Pirates will learn of their seeding as well as which other three teams will be present in the regional.
The Greenville Regional will begin on Friday with two games and will conclude by either Sunday or Monday if necessary. The winner of the double-elimination format will advance to the Super Regional round in a best-of-three series with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
ECU (43-15) has now qualified for the postseason 34 times and 20 of the last 25 seasons. The Pirates have advanced to eight regionals during coach Cliff Godwin’s 10 seasons in Greenville.
The Pirates advanced to the semifinal round of the American Athletic Conference tournament. Playing out of the loser’s bracket, the Pirates forced an elimination game against Wichita State by pulling off a walk-off win in dramatic fashion.
With Cam Clonch at the plate and the score tied 4-4, Dixon Williams, playing after missing Friday’s game due to a one-game suspension, raced home as the Shockers’ pitcher was fidgeting with his pitch-com watch and slid headfirst to send ECU to a 5-4 win.
The pitcher’s late, meek throw to the plate in an attempt to catch Williams softly bounced off Clonch’s helmet and the Shockers had no chance at nabbing Williams.
The Pirates lost the second game, 12-2, in eight innings to seal a 3-2 showing at the tournament. Tulane won the tournament for the second time in as many years and the Green Wave earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
“Our guys competed and battled after some unfortunate stuff happened earlier in the week,” Godwin said, referring to his two-game suspension and William’s one-game ban. “Our guys are tough and resilient. ... It’s just unfortunate how the week shook out but I’m just proud of the way our guys battled back.”
The Pirates, missing ace Trey Yesavage who was recovering from a partially collapsed lung, were thin on pitching. They got Zach Root and Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman back after both missed at least a month, though both pitchers threw in a limited capacity.
“We didn’t have anybody to pitch (Sunday) if we would have won so it’s fine,” Godwin said. “Our guys battled their tails off all week and we’re in good shape and we’ll be ready next weekend.”
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