Pirate Baseball Opens 2004 Preseason Practice
January 14, 2004 | Baseball
"It has been a long time coming and we are anxious to be out here," Mazey said. "We had good weather and should have good weather for the rest of the week. We're starting a week earlier this year and I think it's really beneficial that the weather is good so we can get an early jump on things."
ECU returns six position starters and seven of its top offensive hitters led by Preseason All-America candidate junior outfielder Darryl Lawhorn. The Pirates only question mark is in their pitching. Junior Greg Bunn, who spent the last two seasons as the closer, looks to contribute as a starter in 2004. Bunn posted a 4-5 record with a 3.38 ERA and added nine saves. ECU signed three quality junior college pitchers in Brody Taylor, P.J. Connelly and Carter Harrell. Freshmen Ricky Brooks and Shane Mathews, who both were selected in the 2003 MLB draft, also will contribute in 2004.
The Pirates will practice weekdays beginning at 2:30 p.m. ECU will take part in the fourth annual "Meet the Pirates" on Sat. Jan. 24 in the Murphy Center's Harvey Banquet Hall.
East Carolina opens up the 2004 regular season Feb. 13 with a three-game home series against UNC Asheville.
East Carolina Head Coach Randy Mazey quotes:
On start of spring practice:
"It has been a long time coming and we are anxious to be out here. We have good weather and should have good weather for the rest of the week. We are starting a week earlier this year with spring practice and I think it is really beneficial that the weather is good so we can get an early jump on things."
On off-season preparation:
"Our guys really tackled conditioning in the weight room with a lot of pride. That is one thing with this team that we will never have to worry about and that is how hard they work in the offseason. This past offseason was typical of the way they prepare."
On pitching staff:
"Anytime you don't return many wins or innings on the mound from what you had last year, it is an area of concern. We are very talented on the mound. We have a lot of guys fighting for positions. It will be interesting to see how the roles play out this spring. That is something we are going to be watching throughout spring practice."
On line-up:
"We return our top seven hitters from last year. Our only two seniors in the line-up last year hit eighth and ninth for us. We finished the year swinging the bat pretty well so we are expecting to be pretty good offensively. We added a couple guys and we feel like we have really replaced those two that were good offensive players, but the two guys that we replaced them with in the line-up should be good offensive players as well."
On early start to spring practice:
"We are able to practice right now when teams up north can't practice. We play a lot of northern teams early in the season, so this is going to give us one step up on everybody else. With our tough schedule, we are going to need all the practice opportunities that we can get. We are real anxious to get out here and hopefully the weather will hold up and we can get some work done."
On team's preparation for upcoming season:
"The scrimmage will be important, because we have so many pitchers and we are looking to fill those roles. We are going to try and scrimmage as much as we can and see who can get people out. We worked on fundamentals during the fall and throughout the offseason so now we need to tackle some situations and play a lot of inter-squads and see who fits in where."
On getting to Omaha this year:
"We talk about it on a daily basis. There are only a few people in this program who have ever been there and I am one of them and Coach (Allen) Osborne is the other. We know the hard work that is put into it is worth it, because we have seen it. These guys never have. Our goal is to work hard and play hard and do everything we need to do in order to treat these guys to Omaha."
On playing in regional last year:
"It really was a momentum builder. I think we showed people that we can play with anybody in the nation but at the same time I think our guys have a bitter taste in their mouths because we went 1-2 in the regional and I think everyone knows we are better than that."
