2009 East Carolina Softball Outlook Part II
February 06, 2009 | Softball
Feb. 6, 2009
2009 East Carolina Softball Preview Part I
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina softball team will open the 2009 season tomorrow in Greenville with the ECU Invitational. The Pirates are scheduled to take on Virginia at 1 p.m. followed by Middle Tennessee at 3 p.m.
Yesterday, Part I of the softball preview looked at the infielders and outfielders on this year's squad. Today, Part II examines the pitchers, catchers and 2009 schedule.
Pitching/Catching
The big story of the 2009 pitching staff is the comeback of Toni Paisley from last year's injury. Conference USA coaches voted the redshirt sophomore to the league's preseason team. As a freshman, Paisley posted a 21-5 record and led the Pirates in wins, ERA (1.57), opposing batting average (.192), innings pitched (191.1), strikeouts (211) and appearances (34).
Not to be forgotten in the Paisley return, however, is senior Brooke Swann, who carried the majority of the load for the Pirates last season in Paisley's absence. Swann appeared in 54 games, the most in a year in school history, and finished 2008 with a 25-20 record, the ninth-most wins in a single season in Pirate history. Her 25 victories also placed her 30th in the NCAA for wins on the year. After last season's performance, Swann now stands in the ECU top 10 in eight career pitching categories.
Rounding out the staff are Priscilla Velasquez and Caitlin Wainright, this year's only freshmen. Velasquez guided La Quinta (Calif.) High School to a second-place finish in the Desert Valley League as a freshman and sophomore before winning the first league softball title in school history as a junior. Wainright, a Greenville, N.C., native, was the Coastal 3A Conference Player-of-the-Year and County Pitcher-of-the-Year as a senior when she guided South Central High School to the state championship.
On the receiving end of this year's pitches is likely to be junior Tiffany Shaw, who logged a career-high 12 starts at the position a season ago. She racked up 60 putouts in 2008 and has yet to record an error in her Pirate career. Senior Sarah Bibee will provide a back up option to Shaw behind the dish.
Schedule
ECU will face off against 10 squads that made NCAA Regional appearances a year ago, including two teams that went all the way to the 2008 Women's College World Series. Five opponents on this year's schedule also appear in the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason polls.
The Pirates will open the season at home this Saturday in the ECU Invitational against Virginia at 1 p.m., followed by Middle Tennessee State at 3. East Carolina will also host the Pirate Classic (Feb. 27-28, Mar. 1) and Pirate Clash (Mar. 10-11) during the year.
After this weekend's home stand, the team hits the road for two very challenging weekend tests, at the BAMA! Bash (Feb. 13-15), hosted by the University of Alabama, and the Seminole Classic (Feb. 21-22), hosted by Florida State University. While in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the Pirates will face Wisconsin, Notre Dame and 2008 SEC tournament runner-up and World Series participant Alabama. During the trip to Tallahassee, Fla., ECU will square off against NCAA Super Regional participant Michigan and NCAA Regional selection Florida State, while also taking on UC Riverside and Indiana.
Conference USA play opens March 7, when East Carolina welcomes league preseason favorite, defending regular season conference champion and 2008 NCAA Super Regional participant Houston to town for a three-game series. The Cougars begin the year ranked 13th in the USA Today/NFCA poll and 16th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll. Other C-USA schools making the trek to Greenville in 2009 include defending C-USA Tournament Champion UCF (Mar. 28-29), 2008 NCAA Regional participant Tulsa (Apr. 4-5) and Memphis (Apr. 18-19). Road stops along the C-USA trail include Southern Miss (Mar. 14-15), UAB (Mar. 21-22), UTEP (Apr. 10-11) and Marshall (Apr. 25-26).
Other nonconference games on the slate include home-and-home series against in-state foes N.C. State (Mar. 18 and Apr. 15), North Carolina (Apr. 1 and 8) and Campbell (Apr. 7 and May 2). ECU will also travel to face North Carolina schools Elon (Mar. 3) and UNC Wilmington (Mar. 25) before hosting UNC Greensboro (Apr. 22).
The Pirates finish the regular season hosting the other 2008 Women's College World Series participant on the schedule, Virginia Tech on May 2 and 3.
"Our kids know our season is a marathon and not a sprint," head coach Tracey Kee noted. "We'll approach each game one at a time and learn from our wins and our losses. Hopefully when it draws to a close, we will have put a body of work together that ECU and we can be proud of."
