For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

(02-18-2024 02:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

What is the current status of Rice baseball? It wasn’t that long ago that you were annually discussed as one of the best programs in the sport.

(02-18-2024 02:42 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 02:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

What is the current status of Rice baseball? It wasn’t that long ago that you were annually discussed as one of the best programs in the sport.

(02-18-2024 02:42 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 02:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

What is the current status of Rice baseball? It wasn’t that long ago that you were annually discussed as one of the best programs in the sport.

To make a long story slightly shorter, our former AD never saw eye-to-eye with our HOF coach. He whiffed big time on his replacement (after unceremoniously firing him), but sort-of maybe made up for it (politically, at least) with the replacement of the replacement. You know him as MLB HOF player Jose Cruz Jr. Rice fans know him as the first plum recruitment by Wayne Graham whose time at Rice really got the ball rolling to the elite years (Natty, 3 final fours, and 5 Omaha appearances in 10 years).

Cruz has been recruiting pretty well and this should be the first year with a solid class with a capability to contend for a postseason run (at least the conference tourney kind). Can he actually coach? Jury’s still out on that one.

Fast forward to today and Rice has extended their lead to 7-3 after 6 complete. We need this win today if we are going to have any confidence to build into this young season.

Go Owls.

(02-18-2024 04:07 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 02:42 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 02:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

What is the current status of Rice baseball? It wasn’t that long ago that you were annually discussed as one of the best programs in the sport.

(02-18-2024 02:42 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 02:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  For the third day in a row, Rice takes an early lead hosting Notre Dame.

We’re 0-2 so far, maybe we can hold on today..

What is the current status of Rice baseball? It wasn’t that long ago that you were annually discussed as one of the best programs in the sport.

To make a long story slightly shorter, our former AD never saw eye-to-eye with our HOF coach. He whiffed big time on his replacement (after unceremoniously firing him), but sort-of maybe made up for it (politically, at least) with the replacement of the replacement. You know him as MLB HOF player Jose Cruz Jr. Rice fans know him as the first plum recruitment by Wayne Graham whose time at Rice really got the ball rolling to the elite years (Natty, 3 final fours, and 5 Omaha appearances in 10 years).

Cruz has been recruiting pretty well and this should be the first year with a solid class with a capability to contend for a postseason run (at least the conference tourney kind). Can he actually coach? Jury’s still out on that one.

Fast forward to today and Rice has extended their lead to 7-3 after 6 complete. We need this win today if we are going to have any confidence to build into this young season.

Go Owls.

I remember the early years in CUSA and we ECU fans looked to our series with Rice as a litmus test to our standing. If we’d win a game, we’d feel good about the direction of our program.

Can’t wait to play you guys again.

A 9th inning base running gaffe costed us today. Had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and down only 5-4. Next batter grounded out, but the guy on 3rd also got caught in a run-down. Big difference between having runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, and having a guy on 2nd with two outs. Next batter flied out. Just a really stupid and disappointing way to finish our opening 4-game series. Should’ve taken three of four but only got a split.

Wichita dropped today's game 4-5 @ Little Rock.

Tulane comes back to win the last 2 games to take the series from Northwestern. Hard to take much from it as NU was so bad last year-10-40.

AAC baseball tied for 7th with Big 10 in ELO as of 2/18/24.

Current AAC ELO standings:

ECU: 11
Charlotte: 69
FAU: 75
UTSA: 96
WSU: 106
UAB: 140
Tulane: 142
UM: 155
USF: 184
Rice: 202

(02-18-2024 08:03 PM)Shockdaminkey Wrote:  AAC baseball tied for 7th with Big 10 in ELO as of 2/18/24.

Current AAC ELO standings:

ECU: 11
Charlotte: 69
FAU: 75
UTSA: 96
WSU: 106
UAB: 140
Tulane: 142
UM: 155
USF: 184
Rice: 202

clt says that is nice. picked up a win against v tech today

(02-18-2024 08:03 PM)Shockdaminkey Wrote:  AAC baseball tied for 7th with Big 10 in ELO as of 2/18/24.

Current AAC ELO standings:

ECU: 11
Charlotte: 69
FAU: 75
UTSA: 96
WSU: 106
UAB: 140
Tulane: 142
UM: 155
USF: 184
Rice: 202

Unlike MBB Rice has made the AAC top ten in baseball

Pirates get it's first sweep of the season. Not saying we will win it all, but this team could be special. We will be in it.

Barring injury the weekend rotation is set and we have a deep pen. The guys came out sharp for this point of the season and located well. Starters were on a 80 pitch count and got deep into the game considering it.

Wilcoxen has a great replacement at catcher. This is important because he caught way to many innings last season which effected his bat. He can now DH when not behind the dish and McCrystal is back there. Both catchers have plus arms throwing out multiple base runners this weekend. McCrystal swings it well also.

Defensively we are very strong up the middle returning Berini at short, Starling at second, and Riley Johnson in center. Johnson can fly, stayed on base, stole multiple bases, and could be the best defensive CF in the league.

Offensively, this team can hit. JJC is poised to return or exceed his freshman season where he lead the team in RBI's with 68. Last season's freak injury really hurt him. He never got back to form once he returned from missing weeks due to injury. Coach has multiple options at the plate, but we are very strong with Starling, Wilcoxen, Cunningham, Clonch, Myers and Williams who all have home run power.

Very excited to see how the league plays out! Go Pirates!!!

Underrated stat, but could the Pirates boast the nations best-hitting catcher duo?

(02-19-2024 06:24 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Underrated stat, but could the Pirates boast the nations best-hitting catcher duo?

Could end up that way but McCrystal hasn’t proven it on the field for the Pirates yet. He has had two good summers, and hits well in intrasquads, but has dealt with injuries both springs.

(02-16-2024 07:35 PM)PirateJP Wrote:  Pirates win 16-2, and such a great moment for Parker Byrd. In that moment, it would’ve been easy for him to go up there with tunnel vision looking to drive whatever he saw. But he was patient and earned himself a walk.

Saw a little of his story, and clips of the game on ABC. Pretty Cool, and speaks to all that is Good in Sports.

(02-18-2024 11:14 PM)Pirate Rep Wrote:  Pirates get it's first sweep of the season. Not saying we will win it all, but this team could be special. We will be in it.

Barring injury the weekend rotation is set and we have a deep pen. The guys came out sharp for this point of the season and located well. Starters were on a 80 pitch count and got deep into the game considering it.

Wilcoxen has a great replacement at catcher. This is important because he caught way to many innings last season which effected his bat. He can now DH when not behind the dish and McCrystal is back there. Both catchers have plus arms throwing out multiple base runners this weekend. McCrystal swings it well also.

Defensively we are very strong up the middle returning Berini at short, Starling at second, and Riley Johnson in center. Johnson can fly, stayed on base, stole multiple bases, and could be the best defensive CF in the league.

Offensively, this team can hit. JJC is poised to return or exceed his freshman season where he lead the team in RBI's with 68. Last season's freak injury really hurt him. He never got back to form once he returned from missing weeks due to injury. Coach has multiple options at the plate, but we are very strong with Starling, Wilcoxen, Cunningham, Clonch, Myers and Williams who all have home run power.

Very excited to see how the league plays out! Go Pirates!!!

Just don’t want to get ahead of myself until I see this week play out. @ Campbell will be tough considering what they did last year and they opened this past weekend by taking the series vs #17 UCSB. Then a top 15 matchup vs UNC (one in Greenville, one @UNC & one in Fayetteville). We will know a lot more after this week. I do expect us to go 3-1 if I had to guess, although even 2-2 would not be bad.

(02-19-2024 11:27 AM)B easy Wrote:  

(02-18-2024 11:14 PM)Pirate Rep Wrote:  Pirates get it's first sweep of the season. Not saying we will win it all, but this team could be special. We will be in it.

Barring injury the weekend rotation is set and we have a deep pen. The guys came out sharp for this point of the season and located well. Starters were on a 80 pitch count and got deep into the game considering it.

Wilcoxen has a great replacement at catcher. This is important because he caught way to many innings last season which effected his bat. He can now DH when not behind the dish and McCrystal is back there. Both catchers have plus arms throwing out multiple base runners this weekend. McCrystal swings it well also.

Defensively we are very strong up the middle returning Berini at short, Starling at second, and Riley Johnson in center. Johnson can fly, stayed on base, stole multiple bases, and could be the best defensive CF in the league.

Offensively, this team can hit. JJC is poised to return or exceed his freshman season where he lead the team in RBI's with 68. Last season's freak injury really hurt him. He never got back to form once he returned from missing weeks due to injury. Coach has multiple options at the plate, but we are very strong with Starling, Wilcoxen, Cunningham, Clonch, Myers and Williams who all have home run power.

Very excited to see how the league plays out! Go Pirates!!!

Just don’t want to get ahead of myself until I see this week play out. @ Campbell will be tough considering what they did last year and they opened this past weekend by taking the series vs #17 UCSB. Then a top 15 matchup vs UNC (one in Greenville, one @UNC & one in Fayetteville). We will know a lot more after this week. I do expect us to go 3-1 if I had to guess, although even 2-2 would not be bad.

I get it and a baseball season is a marathon. Even coach said it in his interview yesterday that this team has the most positional talent he's had at ECU.

I just sense something about these guys to handle the adversity a season can bring, but I'll just say I like what I'm seeing so far. Cliff has a very solid track record to boot and he sounds confident.

Not a great weekend for Charlotte but we ended it on a good note. We were able to snag the Sunday game 10-5 over VT.

There are 30 new guys on the roster and lots of inexperience at the D1 level. 15 players got their 1st D1 action this weekend. I think we are very talented but inexperienced so we will get better as the pieces fall into place.

clt says Charlotte squeaks by davidson today, 24-1

ECU lost to Campbell 7-6. Frustrating game, beat ourselves. Campbell only scored 3 earned runs. Can still move up with a sweep of UNC-CH. A series win is probably enough to stay put.

(02-20-2024 09:21 PM)DowdyPirate Wrote:  ECU lost to Campbell 7-6. Frustrating game, beat ourselves. Campbell only scored 3 earned runs. Can still move up with a sweep of UNC-CH. A series win is probably enough to stay put.

clt says go beat UNC Cheat!!!,