ECU Getting Ready For Baseball
ECU comes into this season ranked ranked as high as 21st in the nation in baseball.
The Pirates are preseason No. 25 by Baseball America, No. 21 D1Baseball, 23rd in Perfect Game and 36th as seen by Collegiate Baseball.
ECU has made 30 NCAA regional appearances and won the AAC regular season title with 20 conference wins last year.
They hosted their fifth regional and second straight as a 10 seed in 2019 before advancing to the Louisville Super Regional.
In doing so, the Pirates finished ranked in all six national polls (Perfect Game/No. 11, Baseball America/No. 12, USA Today/No. 12, D1Baseball/No. 13, NCBWA/No. 13 and Collegiate Baseball/No. 15) after posting a 47-18 overall record.
A pair of this year's opponents will be joining ECU in the preseason poll are in No.15 Duke and No. 18 North Carolina.
The Pirates have a new pitching coach in the veteran Jason Dietrich who comes over from Oregon. Dietrich is Collegiate Baseball’s 2016 Pitching Coach-of-the-Year. Jeff Palumbo returns as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator.
Cliff Godwin enters his sixth year as the Pirates' head coach and he has his team set for another big season.
National player of the year,John Olerud two way player and All America and preseason AAC player of the year pitcher/outfielder Alec Burleson returns this season for his junior season. He was on five All-America teams last season.
Junior catcher Seth Caddell along with infielders Thomas Francisco and Ryder Giles return this season along with junior left hander Jake Kuchmaner and junior right-hander Gavin Williams on the mound.
We caught up with the latest from Coach Godwin and his staff along with several key players on media day and the audio from those interviews are below.
PI AUDIO: HEAD COACH CLIFF GODWIN
PI AUDIO: ASST. COACH JEFF PALUMBO
