East Carolina Announces 2003 Baseball Schedule
October 08, 2002 | Baseball
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GREENVILLE, N.C. ? Nineteen games against seven teams that participated in the 2002 NCAA Tournament highlight East Carolina's 2003 baseball schedule announced by first-year head coach Randy Mazey Tuesday.
ECU will host 31 games at Harrington Field, including the season-opening series against Western Carolina (Feb. 14-16). The Pirates opened their record-setting 2001 season against WCU in Greenville, claiming a three-game sweep of the Catamounts. The Pirates will also face instate and ACC rivals Duke, North Carolina and NC State twice each. The Wolfpack will travel to Greenville on Feb. 19, while the Tar Heels will be here on April 16. ECU visits Chapel Hill on April 23 and Raleigh on April 30.
The Pirates begin their travels by heading to Orlando, Fla., to face 2002 NCAA Regional participant UCF (Feb. 21-23). ECU will then host Delaware (Feb. 28-March 2) and Appalachian State (March 8-9) in consecutive home weekend series before opening Conference USA play.
"We've got an extremely tough Conference USA schedule, opening the season at Houston and ending at Tulane," said Mazey. "Non-conference games against North Carolina, NC State and UCF also make for a very demanding and challenging schedule."
East Carolina, the 2002 Conference USA Tournament champion, return 22 lettermen and four starters from last year's squad that finished 43-20-1 and advanced to its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament and recorded its fourth straight 40-win season.
Conference USA action kicks off for the Pirates March 14-16 when they travel to Houston. ECU then returns home to play host to Charlotte (March 21-23) and Cincinnati (March 28-30). Three of the Pirates' next four conference series are on the road, South Florida (April 4-6), TCU (April 18-20), and Louisville (April 25-27). ECU will host Memphis (April 11-13) before heading to TCU and then host back-to-back home series against Southern Miss (May 2-4) and UAB (May 9-11) upon its return. The Pirates conclude the regular season in New Orleans against Tulane (May 15-17). Due to the rotating conference schedule, ECU will not face Saint Louis this season.
The Pirates also have home-and-home midweek series against Elon, N.C. A&T, UNC Wilmington and Campbell. ECU will also face former CAA rival William & Mary at Harrington Field.
The 2003 Conference USA Tournament will be held in New Orleans from May 20-25. It will be the fourth time that the Conference USA Tournament will be held in the city of New Orleans.
