ECU Garners Pair Of Preseason Top-20 Rankings
December 20, 2009 | Baseball
Dec. 20, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. -The East Carolina baseball team received a pair of preseason Top 20 rankings Saturday when they were tabbed No. 18 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 20 by Ping!Baseball.
The Pirates (46-20, 17-7 C-USA), who have made 10 NCAA Regional appearances in the last 11 seasons, claimed the 2009 Conference USA regular season and 2009 Greenville Regional titles before advancing to their third NCAA Super Regional on the way to a 46-20 overall record.
ECU welcomes back 20 letterwinners including 2010 preseason All-America selections Kyle Roller and Trent Whitehead, along with 2008 All-American Seth Maness, 2009 Freshman All-American Kevin Brandt, All C-USA second-teamer Brad Mincey and eighth round and NCAA Greenville Regional star Devin Harris.
Also stepping onto the diamond are eight new faces, which consist of junior college transfer Daniel Warzon (Young Harris), as well as seven freshmen: Bryan Bass, Chris Gosik, Jake Harris, D.J. Jauss, Tyler Joyner, Tanner Merritt and John Wooten.
A year ago, the Pirates landed the most All C-USA selections with seven, including a league-best five first-teamers in Stephen Batts, Chris Heston, Ryan Wood, Maness and Roller. Mincey and Whitehead were named second-team All C-USA and Brandt became the 12th Pirate selected to the All-Freshman squad since 2002.
Head Coach Billy Godwin, who ranks fourth on ECU's all-time wins list with 161 victories, was named Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year after guiding the Pirates to their first regular season C-USA crown since 2004. In four years at the helm of the baseball program, Godwin has led the Pirates to three consecutive NCAA appearances, became the second coach in school history to win 40-plus games in three consecutive seasons (Keith LeClair: 1999-2002) and has had 15 players selected in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
The Pirates will begin spring practice on Friday, Jan. 29 in preparation for the season opener against Virginia on Feb. 19, 2010.
