The first time T.J. Hose was named a winning pitcher for the East Carolina Pirates, the freshman did so as a reliever against Michigan in 2005.
It was the first game ever played inside Clark-LeClair Stadium, and the Pirates walked off the field with a 2-1 win over the Wolverines.
|
ECU pitcher T.J. Hose takes a 21-17 career record into this weekend's series with Tulane.
|
Within a month, Hose had been extracted from his bullpen role and had become the Pirates' No. 1 starter. In the nearly four seasons since, Hose has been a fixture in the framework of the ECU baseball program.
While his 21-17 career record to date is less than gaudy, it epitomizes the pitcher who head coach Billy Godwin has constantly praised for his devotion to team over statistics.
When he takes the mound this weekend against long-standing Conference USA rival Tulane, Hose will do so armed with a degree in management. After taking his final college exam Monday, Hose said he hopes to take aim at Tulane and then a long postseason run.
"It's a critical weekend for us," said Hose who, like fellow weekenders Seth Maness and Justin Bristow, has made 11 starts entering senior weekend. "They're going to be offensive, and they've got great pitchers, but we've just got to take it game by game. We have not won a series with Tulane since we joined Conference USA, and that's another thing to be hungry about, just to prove to them that we can beat them."
While Hose was mindful his team has been on the winning side the last three times — the Pirates (36-13 overall, 11-7 C-USA) beat Tulane (33-15, 10-6) in the final game of the regular season series in 2007, then clipped the Green Wave twice in the C-USA Tournament in Greenville — he knows the overall results in the series have been less impressive. The Wave owns a 10-5 record in the all-time series.
Hose, a Hagerstown, Md., native and lifelong devotee of the Baltimore Orioles, said he hopes to soon join a large handful of other former Pirates trying to navigate the minor leagues after leaving ECU. But he also hopes to someday tie together his major and his baseball career.
"My main goal coming here was to get myself positioned to play professionally," said Hose, who has 242 career strikeouts entering the weekend. "It's always been a dream of mine. I graduated with a management degree, and I'd like to get back into baseball and try to be a coach one day at the college and professional ranks."
Sharing the mound this weekend with Hose (5-4), Maness (8-0) and Bristow (7-2) will be a fierce Tulane threesome led by ace Shooter Hunt, who is 11-1 with 96 strikeouts and a 2.04 earned run average.
Behind him, Bobby Broach (5-2) and Jonathan Garrett (3-2) have been solid in combining for more than 100 innings thrown and 82 strikeouts.
"It's going to be a good challenge for our club," Godwin said. "We know we're a good offensive club. We know that, we've proven that through 49 games, but this is going to be a challenge. Shooter Hunt is probably one of the premier pitchers in the country. For us to reach our goals and win regionals, we have to go out and hit well against a guy like him."
As is normally the case, Tulane will also have an impressive array of hitters to back up the mound staff, led by the trio of Anthony Scelfo (.333 batting average, 10 home runs, 45 RBIs), Rob Segedin (.354, 16 doubles, 47 RBIs) and Seth Henry (.324, 14 2B, 45 RBIs).
The Pirates will go to battle with their usual senior weapons, fronted by season-long slugging leader Corey Kemp, who leads C-USA with 60 RBIs to go along with his .375 average and team-best 14 homers. Harrison Eldridge is fifth in C-USA with his .378 average, and has 74 hits, 12 doubles and 28 stolen bases.
Behind them, senior Jamie Ray and juniors Stephen Batts and Ryan Wood have each eclipsed the 40-RBI mark, and fellow junior Brandon Henderson is right behind with 38.
The series — which begins tonight at 7 and is set to continue, weather permitting, Saturday at 3 p.m. and finish Sunday at noon — could be critical in separating ECU from a pack of teams trailing first-place Rice.
"Us, Tulane, Southern Miss and Houston are all kind of jumbled up in second place, so this is going to play a role in the conference standings," Godwin said.
Other seniors being honored in Saturday's Senior Day ceremonies will be pitchers Brett Butts and Josh Ruhlman.
Nathan Summers can be reached at nsummers@coxnc.com, or at (252)329-9595.
