East Carolina found out Sunday night that Clark-LeClair Stadium would be hosting one of 16 NCAA baseball regionals after putting together a 41-15 record and a 20-8 record in league play including an American Athletic Conference regular season title.
On Monday the seedings were unveiled it was announced that 13th seeded ECU would host Norfolk State(25-26) who will be making their first appearance in the NCAA’s in the opener at 12 noon on Friday.
Maryland(28-16) will also be in Greenville making their first appearance in the regionals since 2017 when they take on Charlotte(39-19) who is making their first appearance in ten years.
The Greenville Regional was paired up with the Nashville Regional where reigning national champs (4)Vanderbilt(40-15) takes on Presbyterian(22-21) at 7 pm on Friday. Before that, Indiana St.(22-21) will take on Georgia Tech(29-23) at 1 o’clock on Friday.
East Carolina will make its 31st postseason appearance and fifth in the last six years after earning the No. 1 seed in the Greenville Regional in this year’s NCAA Baseball Championships.
Monday's selection marks the eighth time in school history the Pirates garnered the top seed in a regional (1999 – Baton Rouge, La., 2000 – Lafayette, La., 2001 – Wilson, N.C., 2004 – Kinston, N.C., 2009 – Greenville, N.C., 2018 – Greenville, N.C., 2019 – Greenville, N.C.) and the third consecutive year with a Top 16 overall seed with their No. 13 selection this season (No. 12 in 2018 and No. 10 in 2019).
ECU has qualified for regional competition in 17 of the last 22 seasons (none in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic) and five times during head coach Cliff Godwin's seven-year tenure after traveling to the Coral Gables (Fla.) Regional in 2015, Charlottesville (Va.) Regional in 2016 and hosting in 2018 and 2019 in Greenville.
The 16 selected regional sites are Texas (Austin), South Carolina (Columbia), Oregon (Eugene), Arkansas (Fayetteville), TCU (Fort Worth), Florida (Gainesville), East Carolina (Greenville), Tennessee (Knoxville), Texas Tech (Lubbock), Vanderbilt (Nashville), Ole Miss (Oxford), Louisiana Tech (Ruston), Notre Dame (South Bend), Stanford (Stanford), Mississippi State (Starkville), and Arizona (Tucson).
ECU, that fell to UCF in the AAC Tournament, has appeared in five super regionals in their baseball history. The Pirates have made no appearances in Omaha for the College World Series in their baseball history.
Ranked in the top 15 for most of the season, the Pirates won virtually all of their series this season with league play comprised of four game weekend series.
Heading into Sunday, the Pirates had the number 15 RPI and in the comfortable confines of Clark-LeClair Stadium. ECU went 27-4 while not having as much luck on the road with a 11-9 mark.
ECU had the best batting average in the AAC this season at .302 with 73 home runs and averaging 6.8 runs per game.
Leading the pack was American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Connor Norby who carried a .424 batting average with 51 RBI’s and 15 home runs. Thomas Francisco has also been hot at the late with a .368 batting average with 12 home run and 44 RBI’s.
Gavin Williams leads the Pirates on the mound after being named AAC Pitcher-of-the-Year. His 10-0 record and 1.32 tops the league. Williams struck out 108 batters this season against just 18 walks.
The 16 regional winners will meet in a super regional action in a best-of-three format with the winners advancing to the College World Series in Omaha.
