It may only be January, but baseball fans were out in full force Thursday night as the Pitt-Greenville Hot Stove League held its annual banquet at J.H. Rose High School.

The 23rd annual event brought together players from little league to high school and beyond to celebrate the tradition of youth baseball in Greenville and eastern North Carolina.

The night’s featured guest speaker was East Carolina head coach Billy Godwin. Godwin — who played baseball at Northern Nash High School in Rocky Mount and Atlantic Christian College (now Barton) in Wilson — shared various stories as he talked of rising through the coaching ranks, from high school to American Legion to junior college at Louisburg and now ECU.

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