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Funny game leave Bucs smiling…
Baseball, they say, is a funny game. And anyone who’s followed America’s Pastime for any length of time know what that means.
Funny as in curious, disturbing, oddly entertaining…. Not the ha-ha variety.
That’s about all one could say about the Diamond Buc’s performance at the CUSA tournament this past weekend. It’s only that kind of funny that can have a team among the national leaders in offensive production held scoreless for 15 consecutive innings. Funny that a team that hadn’t been shut out in nearly two years fail to score in the clutch. Funny that a team with one of the best records in the country could go 1-2 and seemingly leave the hopes of hosting a NCAA tournament regional to the lonely ranks of the incurable optimists.
Again, I’m talking baseball funny. Because no one was laughing.
In hindsight, I guess we should have seen this coming. The Diamond Bucs had to pour it on late to get past the #8 seed UCF in Game One. Stephen Batts paced the Pirates with three RBI, but the Game MVP went to Jared Avchen (his second of the season) for his clutch hitting in the bottom of the seventh that included the game winner.
If first game jitters made for an explanation for a Pirate team that finished the regular season 9-1 and were hitting and pitching with power and consistency, then you’d have to ‘blame’ Southern Miss pitcher JR Ballinger for the loss in Game Two. In fact, not to be overlooked in all of this is that the Diamond Bucs faced two of the league’s hottest pitchers within hours of each other in the rain-altered schedule. Josh Zeid for Tulane pitched very well in the elimination game, and while the Pirates managed seven hits in each of the two perplexing losses, the Pirates were unable to put anything together and were uncharacteristically sloppy in the Tulane game, with two charged errors and simply outplayed (see Dustin Harrington getting hosed at home…twice).
So with the Diamond Bucs left to unceremoniously board the bus for the 13-hour, 900 mile bus trip back to Greenville, the Bucs had with plenty of time ponder what could have been.
One of the things to consider was that, since the ‘House that 23 built has been in existence, the four Pirate teams that have played there have come up short. During that span, we’ve been proud to matriculate some of the finest Pirate players to wear the purple and gold, but behind the scenes, we had a lot of stuff going on. Destined and designed to allow the Bucs to host regionals and give them a proper send off to Omaha, CLS been relegated to summer leagues and the hollow whir of the summer mower.
And when you couple that with the success of our neighbors in Chapel Hill and the sheer demagoguery of our former AD, and it’s understandable that the program hit the protracted speed bump. But since the arrival of Terry Holland and Billy Godwin, the progress has been slow, steady and decidedly real.
The goal of Godwin and Holland is much like the goals set forth for the football program under Holland and Skip Holtz: put themselves in a position to win, and by living right and taking the high road, good things will happen.
And a lot like the end of the ‘08 Pirate football campaign, the Pirates found themselves with the goal achieved. With conference titles in hand, and the post-season destination of choice realized, all that’s left is the reckoning. Baseball’s a funny game, but you need to put yourselves in a place to appreciate the humor.
All that were announced today were the host sites. The NCAA, in their usual ambiguous style, leave the schools, players and fans in a 24-hour lurch to learn what teams will serve as our guests next weekend.
Knowing what little I do about the intricacies of the selection process, I’ll venture a guess here: Virginia will be the 2 seed, George Mason will follow suit as a number 3. The final spot could go to any one of a dozen teams. If those teams were to be included in our draw, there would be subplots galore, from the UVA assistant head coach Kevin McMullan (who served as ECU’s acting head coach for Keith LeClair in 2001-2002) to the inclusion of George Mason (a team we faced regualary back in our CAA days). When it comes down to the NCAA’s, the Pirates don’t need to face anyone with any added motivation.
Regardless of the makeup of the Greenville Regional, and whether or not this year’s team is the one that realizes the ultimate dream of taking the field in Omaha, Nebraska, one thing seems certain.
Baseball is a funny game, and when the Diamond Bucs take the field this Friday at the house that Keith LeClair built, there’s at least one Pirate Legend that will be smiling.
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