Baseball Closes Out Fall With Blackbeard Challenge
December 10, 2009 | Baseball
Dec. 10, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina baseball team completed its Annual Fire of Blackbeard Challenge last week as the 2009 fall practice schedule came to an end, with Devin Harris, Lance Honeycutt, Dustin Harrington, Corey Thompson, Jonathan Tyndall and Zach Woods guiding the Purple team to the Fifth Annual Championship.
Head Coach Billy Godwin and his staff broke the squad into five groups and put them through a series of challenges that tested endurance, strength and teamwork.
"This was another exciting and fun event for our team," said Godwin. "Each year we seem to be faster and stronger than the year before, and all of that is a credit to the hard work the players along with Coach Mason Baggett (strength and conditioning) and Zac Womack (athletic trainer) has put in."
The first day of competition saw the teams compete in the 300-yard shuttle (Shawn Armstrong), 60-yard shuttle (Philip Clark and Devin Harris) and pro agility (Dustin Harrington).
On day two, the teams completed chin-ups (Daniel Warzon) and the dead lift (Kyle Roller). Day three consisted of the vertical jump (Philip Clark), broad jump (Philip Clark) and a stadium run (Austin Homan); while day four featured dumb bell bench press (Daniel Warzon), close grip bench (Kyle Roller) and plate hold (Zach Wright).
Final day of competition, which took place during heavy rain, saw all five teams participate in a three-mile run, in which Tyler Joyner edged out Brad Mincey and Devin Harris for the fastest time.
Then each team participated in the crucible completing in a series of challenges which they had to carry weights, pull weights on a sled, push wood sleds, sprint 40-yards and finish with a 20-yard army crawl. The team with the best time received points to be added to the previous four days events, deciding the overall team champion.
At the teams end of the semester banquet, which was held at the Murphy Center in the Harvey Hall Room, Godwin announced that Harris had won the individual title with a score of 234 with Shawn Armstrong (225) finishing second.
Teams in order of finish:
Team Purple - Devin Harris, Lance Honeycutt, Dustin Harrington, Corey Thompson, Zach Woods and Jonathan Tyndall (1307 points).
Team Gold - Mike Anderson, Kevin Brandt, Jacob Davis, Kyle Roller, Sthil Sowers, Mark Wilder and John Wooten (1249 points).
Team White - Jared Avchen, Bryan Bass, Seth Maness, Joe O'Malley, Daniel Warzon, Mike Wright and Zach Wright (1182 points).
Team Dark Grey - Philip Clark, Jake Harris, Austin Homan, D.J. Jauss, Tyler Joyner, Brad Mincey and Trent Whitehead.
Team Light Grey - Shawn Armstrong, Cameron Freeman, Chris Gosik, Joseph Hughes, Tanner Merritt, Seth Simmons and Patrick Somers.
The Pirates will begin spring practice on Friday, Jan. 29 in preparation for the season opener against Virginia on Feb. 19, 2010.
