ECU Head Baseball Coach Cliff Godwin with Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, Erik Ritchie and Ryan McCrystal.
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Official Pizza provider of ECU Pirates now live from tiebreakers in Greenville this is inside pirate Athletics welcome in everybody great to have you with us here Patrick Johnson step IO from Hoist the Colors and Pirate baseball tonight with uh coach Cliff Godwin joining us here and the Ashley
Ranked Pirates will be back at home tomorrow they’ll take on UNCW in a midweek clash and the first pitch for tomorrow Tuesday is scheduled for 6: p.m. you can get your tickets at ecupirates.com and don’t forget coming up on Thursday the series with UAB will start because of the Easter holiday
It’ll be a Thursday Friday both games at 600 and then the Saturday game uh will take place that day Cliff Godwin uh joins us uh here sliding in safely to home you like timing you like that timing it was it was well ahead of the throw well this wasn’t the outfit I
Planned to wear but I was FaceTiming with Jake agnos and he’s going through some stuff with his arm again and um no no offense that’s way more important than me being on this radio for me to help him um so literally got off the FaceTime call as I was opening that door
But I’m never late just ask our players yeah never late you’re always on time I’m always on time you’re always on time and if they’re not there 10 minutes before they’re late well that’s the unique thing about this group uh you know a couple weeks ago we were meeting
After we lost to Southeastern Louisiana and the leadership group and cam CLA said uh hey coach you said after yesterday we’re this close for being great and he was like how can we be great if guys aren’t turning in the grades on time or you know guys are you
Know maybe a little bit late for a team meal and we got these little cracks in the foundation and I said CLA you’re 100% right man I said we can tighten up the standards a little bit but hey look that means everybody in this room is
Going to be held to those same standards no matter if it’s trade savage or Ron mccristal or Eric Richie or and so they agreed they presented to the team and said if you are late for anything or you miss anything um you’re suspended for a
Game so as fate would have it um last Sunday when we played Colombia uh one of our best players I won’t say who it is but he’s a pitcher he’s really good was a couple minutes late for the team Mill so of course being the person he is he
Walks up to me and says coach I was 2 minutes late and I said well hey I need a few minutes to digest this because I know what we’re going to have to do and I just need you to walk away and let me talk about this with a couple of the
Guys and so he wasn’t scheduled to pitch that day so uh he missed Sunday’s game and wasn’t in The Dugout and uh kudos to him for having Integrity to walk up to me but that’s the thing I know about this group I told you guys uh this
Morning I’m driving in to work this morning and I’m thankful of how much they care and look we’re going to be really good at the end of the year we didn’t play our best baseball this weekend I was surprised that you said we’re nationally ranked hell I thought everybody kick us
Out of the polls but uh um we’re a really good team and we’re a great organization and I have a ton of confidence in this group you know it’s interesting you go in there they they were kind of loaded for bear this weekend I mean they’ve been an offensive
Pretty good offensive team uh you likened them to your 22 team and and that you know really pitching wise they have lot especially on the back end they can match up with you uh and I think you said it very well Saturday too didn’t matter if the ball was put in play it
Was going through well Saturday because it was such a long game and of course we put up a six spot and then you know the infield by this time is like that parking lot that’s out there except it’s got craters in it because they don’t drag in the fifth inning which is fine
Like it’s great for our guys as I told him on Thursday night’s practice this is great for you guys to see because of how good that you have it um now I would say this they need to do some different things if they want to be in our conference baseballwise where they need
To get track man uh review did not work yesterday until the seventh inning the call on Bristol Carter his second at bat I reviewed it and the umpires came back to me and said we had no video so if you’re going to be at our level then you
Need to support your baseball program as they do probably in football because they’ve had a really good football and they’ve had a good baseball program but they need to tighten up the ship a little bit um but I knew going in because I know their head coach he used to be an
Assistant under Wayne Graham at rice and I knew how competitive he is I know how well of a baseball guy he’s you know going to have these guys prepared and I just told the team this um AK and I didn’t talk about it but when we walked
Down to the field on Friday and they got two pitching machines and they’re throwing gas really close to their hitters and they’ve got spin going on one and it’s next to next to each other and none of their players are showing any emotion when they’re failing at
Hitting off these two pitch machines and internally I’m going they’re really going to be ready for tray and I wonder how our players our position players specifically would handle this if I had those two pitching machines uh and I can tell you cuz we’ve been on they would have been frustrated
They’d have been pissed off they’d have you know acted because as we’ve continued to get better and this is my fault we are a little bit more white collar today than we were in 20 2015 in 2015 we’re blue collar and we’ve got to get a little bit more blue collar at the
End of the season and tougher as coach Knight told our team um not that we’re far off but we’ve got to get back to the hey the toughness level when we weren’t as talented as we are now in in the chip on the show yeah yeah and you know every
Season’s different Cliff every team is different so do you feel like this is just one of those things you have to experience maybe the the hard way to learn from it or go through that you know firsthand well I would tell you this I go I would not still be the head
Coach at East Carolina if I acted like I did early in my career just you know I would have said the wrong things to a one player the parents would have been pissed off and you know sent an email to John Gilbert and whoever else and so
It’s a fine line but the thing I know about this group is they’re totally committed to being the best and if we tell them we need to be tougher they will hold each other accountable to get tougher UTSA you know you kind of mentioned it but going into the series
The numbers pitching wise didn’t impress you but watching some of their arms I mean but if you if you break down the pitchers that they pitch yeah their top arms I mean they’re good one of the one of the relievers hadn’t give up a hit
That we and we got three or four hits off of him on Saturday he ain’t given up a hit all year yeah and then the rohas sky you know pitch well Friday and and they use kind of the opener strategy so was that I don’t know difficult to
Navigate at all offensively for you guys just facing them I I would say the most difficult thing video wasn’t great you know I I told uh Henry imp pack and AK I said I feel like we’re going into the 19 Regional against Quinny Pak except
Quinny Pak had like a high home view of pitchers where you could even tell if it was a slider a change up or a fast ball you could tell the pitches but just the video that we had wasn’t as good as we have on other opponents it’s not an
Excuse um but it makes you uncomfortable as a coach because you know you’re about to walk into a hornets nest and we did and like I told you guys this morning and I’ll say it on the radio hey look just call me at the end of the spring
And see if we’re where we need to be and then we’ll talk but no we didn’t want to start out one and two in the conference but just call me at the end of the regular season and I will let you know if we did what we needed to do but I
Feel pretty confident we were going to do what we need to do and last year you know Houston y’all started one and two and still won the league so it is it is possible did we start off did we start off at Houston last year it was we
Played terrible that weekend got stop going to Texas that first conference well it’s a good wakeup call you know it’s a good wake up call for our guys and um you know jdub and star and I met today you know you guys ask about them
So we can get this out the elephant out of the room and you talk about two young men that have put a ton of pressure on themselves not for themselves but for the team and um they’re going to play a lot Freer as Jake Hunter pitched a lot
Freer on Sunday and I’m just excited for those guys because um as I told them how many people they’ve impacted in a positive way and and Ryan um and I touched on this in the team meeting but I said Jada do you think Ryan mccristal
Would be as good of a catcher as he is if he hadn’t watched you work for the past three years and the way you go about your business I said absolutely not and then Ryan told him that without me talking to Ryan so pretty cool man
The impact that they have on one another is going to go on for years to come with mccristal too you told us today he’s been one of those that’s committed to the work and the schedule and every day putting that in and let him he’s here
He’s going to talk about that but I spot checked him today in our team meeting and freak and he had it right there and he showed it to me so and he didn’t know that’s not easy to do cuz it doesn’t always pay it’s not going to pay
Dividends right right away well and Ryan was vulnerable enough with me when I asked the question three weeks ago in my office hey what’s one thing that you’ve been consistent at from a process standpoint in your life for an extended period of time and he looked at me and
Goes nothing and I go well that’s a problem let’s let’s work on this and so then him and I had this conversation and I said hey what are three or four things that you want to do every day that’s going to help you and he said that and then you just plug it
Into your schedule around classes and treatment and uh Team practice and study hall and all that good stuff so he can share all that stuff but and look it’s not foolproof but it gives you the best chance to have success absolutely we’re going to take a break we’ll come back
Talk a little more about the series this week and I want to talk about the Elon game also talk about something good yeah I like we’re talk about something good yeah great uh outing Tuesday uh at Elon Pirates will have uh UNCW coming in tomorrow it’s a 6:00 first pitch before
We go to break fans football season tickets are now on sales season tickets $115 payment plans are available uh and they start at $115 I should say so you can purchase your tickets by heading to ecupirates.com we’re here tonight at tiebreakers thanks for being with us here on this uh really nice Monday
Afternoon in Greenville and we’ll be back with more of our inside pirate Athletics program right after these words we call it drive the unrelenting desire to become the person you were born to be ignited by a Moment the realization that a future you could only dream of is
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Story no brainer right just when you think you’ve got it all figured out you realize you need Wayne har injury cases are never simple there’s always more to the story offers you can’t refuse but it’s my job to get you a fair subm been in a w you need the way hard
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Before heading to Governor Cooper’s death thank you for letting us be on your side St Louis Missouri now back to inside pirate Athletics from tiebreakers in Greenville we’re back with uh Cliff Godwin thanks for being with us here tonight a reminder to download the new Royal Farms app from the app store or
Google play today new Roo rewards members will get a free any size Royal Farms coffee just for signing up Royal Farms real fresh real fast Patrick Johnson Steven IO from Hoist the Colors here tonight we’re talking Pirate baseball with Coach Godwin coach uh Elon you said afterwards that was the
Most complete game that you all have played this year I would assume that covers every aspect so what about it stood out well we’ve been really harping on throwing the first punch so we threw the first punch I think we scored three runs in the first inning um so that set
The tone um Ryan actually had a big base hit with two outs that were two RB um in that inning um and then Kaylor went out there and I said this to you guys earlier but on paper Elon probably has the best offensive team that they’ve had
Since I’ve been the head coach at East Carolina so you’re a little bit worried about that because they’re better offensively but we go out put up a three spot Kaylor goes out there puts a zero up um defensively our guys were bouncing around communicating they were excited to play sometimes in that midweek
Scenario when you’re playing at Elon and this goes back to when I was playing at East Carolina you know e Carolina always thinks that they’re better than Elon which is a good thing but you still have to go out there and play the game so sometimes our guards let down and they
Just kind of roll the balls out and I mean I mean one year we beat them I think it was 21 we beat him like 18-2 and then the next day he got beat two to one and I was like so ticked off to be honest with you because I thought we
Just weren’t ready to play and I Tred to prepare him as a coach but anyway I just thought complete Game defense pitching offense excited to play I told our guys I was like that was a fun game for our our coaches to coach because um it just looked like you guys really enjoyed
Yourselves out here so couple midweek starts for Cayla now in a row he seems to be finding a little bit of a Groove what have you seen you know the last few outtings from him well I I think that he’s continued to he’s always had good fastball command but he’s been able to
Get his all speed over for strikes um but I think the Elon start was the best start that he’s had so far um and he’s always available you know this weekend I didn’t really want to pitch him until Sunday which he was available yesterday we just didn’t get to a point where we
Were going to use him um if we had gone into extra end he probably would have pitch yesterday and when he just figured out um tomorrow of course but uh he’s done a great job and hey man I’m just happy that he’s continue to get better
Every week Ethan norb as well I asked you about him earlier but you know was is just a matter of going out there and having some success and building on that confidence-wise for freshman cuz we we saw him do it in the off season and you
Know he had been hitting it’s not he had pitched bad he just been bitten by the Home Run ball so was that kind of the the issue you would seen with him H well I think it kind of spy the is where you know everybody talks about him in the
Fall and I always say that we’re not going to talk about freshman in the fall and we continually to do do that so it happens um so not that he got arrogant or anything but I do think his mechanics got thrown off over the off season for a
Little bit and he wasn’t throwing quite as hard because of some mechanical issues so it’s not 88 or 86 to 90 anymore it’s more like 84 886 touching 88 and then you know guys don’t have to cheat as much to get to the fast ball so
That makes your off speed not as good um he wasn’t sharp as far as locating pitches but I do think him not having success like you think about the Carolina game he came in face the Lefty they pinch hit a right-handed batter he got in a 2-0 count which was a really
Tight Zone that day the 1-0 pitch was a strike in my opinion the guy bought it so now if it’s a 1-1 count you don’t have to Gro a fast ball but we grew the fast ball 20- because hey man it’s a freshman that he’s facing and we’re up
We just got to see and the guy hit three hey guy hits the three- run Jack well he really came in face of the Lefty so I think that weighed on him um but him and AK have worked really hard on his mechanics and he was awesome like my
Uncle was at the game from South Georgia this week goes that look like cooch man are out there and I was like man yeah he was working quick and he gave us a chance to win after Trey um and try gave us a chance to win even though it wasn’t
Sharp so um that was really good to see and it saved the bullpen for the rest of the weekend coach we’re coming to the end of March and y’all played more Road games than home games I can’t remember being this late in the season in that
Being the case so I don’t know you missed have you been on your message board telling everybody that you know not yet not yet it just feels like that’s uh kind of an anomaly for you so is that um are you glad to be home I guess this week man it’s always good
Like we talked about this last week where you just feel like you’ve been on the road so much when you come home it’s like a breath of fresh air like you get to sleep in your own bed and just the little nuances of the things that you probably take for granted when you’re
Home a lot but no it’s awesome it’s awesome to for an empir Nation I hope place is packed tomorrow night we got great weather at least I think I go haven’t checked it that closely so uh but we got great weather our kids are confing it the bit to get back on the
Field so hope pirate nation’s loud and proud tomorrow night coach wanted to uh ask you a little bit about Hunter you referenced uh he pitched Freer didn’t really pitch poorly uh defense let him down a little bit so as you look at Jake and how he’s progressed as that that
Sunday starter uh go into that a little bit with us yeah I I just think Jake being honest with us coaches and his teammates and saying they had a thousand of things going through his head just for him to be able to articulate that uh you know Carter Cunningham told this to
Our team and it’s the truth man when you when you’re holding on to something and there’s a podcast coming out that I did with uh open door and Aaron Kennedy two Mondays ago with Parker bird and it’s going to shock some people some of the stuff that I said personally um about my
Life that I’m not proud about but hey man it’s allowed me to be so much Freer just by getting that stuff out there and the thing I hope with that is it helps somebody it helps somebody that that has looked at coach Godwin and think that everything’s going perfect in his life
And um it hasn’t I’ve known you a long time I know it hasn’t go perfect no it has not um not that I’ve had an extremely hard life but when you put the priorities where I was putting them at times and not taking care of yourself
You get to a bad spot and uh Jake just been able to come out of that like yeah the the box score doesn’t show it but as we talked in front of our leadership group like he looked differently yesterday his fastball command was so much better and we just didn’t play
Great def when I took him out of the game as I told him today I said I don’t know if you remember I said this but I said hey man you look so much Freer day and we just didn’t help you out dude so don’t change what you’re doing um and of
Course Richie picked him up and that was the thing our Bullpen and Trey said this to our team our Bullpen was awesome this weekend and for all our fans and I hope somebody is listening especially those Message Board people but two weeks ago Danny Bill and Eric Richie were the
Worst pitchers in the country and I said hey look they’re slow starters they’re going to be fine how have those guys pitched the past two weeks lights out lights out so hey just listen to coach gy whenever once a while I always do I want to ask you about Eric uh uh Riley
Riley Johnson sorry about that I want to ask you about Riley Johnson what’s uh what’s status with him day to day um you know uh as I told Riley today I said hey man it’s lasted longer than I anticipated and um of course you know yesterday the the miscommunication in
The Outfield is cuz Riley’s not out there and um that’s not a knock against Bristol and Noak but we got to be better when Riley’s not out there and we can be if we communicate a little bit better and Bristol knows that Noak knows that
And and we’ll get better from it so um but I would say he’s 50/50 for tomorrow but my biggest concern is I want him to be able to go Thursday so um we can not that we’re taking UNCW lightly but we can’t just keep like trying to push him
And then not get him some time off to let that shoulder heal because his shoulder popped out you know still in second base guy landed on him and um it takes a couple days for him to feel good enough to swing the bat yeah uh we’ll have more with Coach Godwin coming up
Which player you want us to uh go with here uh let’s let Richie uh lead off since he’s probably the most uh uncomfortable to do this okay all right I don’t know but Crystal I think’s kind of fired up he’s going first so yeah we’ll get Eric Richie on hey salt ball
Back in Action tomorrow uh as well at the Joiner Family Stadium first is at 4 admission to softball free all season long so before you head over to the baseball game uh you can uh go over and enjoy some pirate softball big win for them yesterday they uh took the series
From number 21 Charlotte on a walk-off Homer uh yesterday at home so the Pirates beat Charlotte two out of three this uh weekend splitting the double header with them yesterday all right we’ll be right back with more inside pirate Athletics on the ECU Sports Network stay with us here at wnct we
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On your side Morning Edition weekdays from 4:30 to 7 you’re listening to inside pirate Athletics live from tiebreakers in Greenville the uh 6121 lb sophomore reliever for the Pirates is Eric Richie who joins us uh here for uh inside pirate Athletics on this uh Monday evening uh Eric has uh
Pitched very very well here lately thank you for coming up with us here is it funny being in a setting in the public without a hat that cuz you were telling us you wear a hat everywhere yeah um I really never go anywhere without a hat
Cuz it’s too much to control yeah it looks good though you super straight hair so nothing works on it so I just hats every day I got you when uh when when you have uh kind of made the evolution in the season of uh a little
Bit of a slow start but things have kind of clicked for you here what what is there a particular thing you can put your finger on um I was just trying to like be someone else trying to be like the guy and that’s not really who I am I
Just needed to go out there and play loose and just kind of be who I was as a person cuz I’m not a very I’m I can be serious but I’m a very you like to have fun I love to have fun so it’s become more fun for you out there yeah just
Being loose on the mound like I’ll smile when I’m up there it’s just I just need to have fun you know I can’t Trey when he’s out there is like super like I’m going to hurt you yeah I’m the exact opposite and it’s I just needed me and
Him had a talk at one point about like I just had to kind of find like who I was as a person and be like that on the mountain and and you guys are roommates so and grew up you were telling me before we went on 30 minutes away from
Each other but never really played against each other no we I we kind of like knew each other and then in high school we played on some of those like all-star teams together and that was when he was committed to Pittsburgh right so I was like oh and then we
Followed each other on Instagram and then I saw one day he posted like he committed East Carolina I was saying oh wow so that you were pretty fired up then yeah um is it just two Pennsylvania guys you get along you kind of understand each other or or is it just
Is there something more to it the clicking is roommates or is it the sea salt spray that he’s got might be the sea salt spray we both enjoy that but I think we we offset each other I think pretty well it’s like when you hold magnets together and they won’t they
Won’t click right that’s how I would describe TR I we just we’ll go into each other’s rooms just en knowy each other just for fun cuz it’s I don’t know is it’s fun yeah yeah so you’re obviously you like to have fun what about Trey off the
Field is he is he still you know pretty serious in that man or is he like to have some fun too no no Trey Trey when he’s not pitching is a very laughable like funny guy he doesn’t he’s not always Mr I’m going to hurt you right
That’s fair uh you talk and and we’ve talked with Carter Cunningham Eric and Coach Goin about you know playing the game free and you kind of mentioned that like just being yourself so is that it’s got to be easier said than done though cuz like at times you probably put
Pressure on yourself even without even trying to yeah and no matter like what year you are freshman sophomore fifth year you know there’s always something that’s like on the line so I mean in a way you are playing for more than what you really think about but I mean we say
It all the time like we’re 18 to 23 year olds playing at Children’s game so it’s you kind of got to keep that mindset and you’re out there with 38 40 of your best friend friends that you’re going to have for the rest of your life so when you
Think about it like that it’s kind of easy to just throw all the stuff that you kind of look at behind closed doors away and focus on just having fun in the moment yeah I mean at the end of the day it is still just a game and uh you know
That’s definitely how how you can look at it so Eric take us through Your Arsenal on the mound for fans who haven’t seen you pitch how how many pitches do you have and take us through all of them so we’ve got we’ve got I have a throw a four seam fastball so
That’s got a little bit of the the ride to it and I cut it sometimes and sink it but we won’t get into that I got a little a little cutter thing and then my bread and butter is the curve ball that’s the the big one and then I
Started Trey helped me throw a splitter so I started throwing that cuz I couldn’t throw a change up couldn’t figure it out so how how often have you executed the splitter this year is it working pretty good more than I thought I would to be honest I thought it was
Going to be one of those hey we’ll throw it for a 02 count and the guy’s looking like trash but you know I’ve actually thrown it in like three two counts so that’s that’s impressive for me that’s pretty big have you always had the curveball cuz I mean it is it is pretty
Nasty pitch so has that always come come natural to you I had it when I was in high school in the beginning of high school lost it and then my senior year of high school before I broke my wrist I started filling with it again found it
And then freshman year kind of had to find it again because I forgot how to throw my freshman year I didn’t play my freshman year but I had to had to figure it out and it just kept getting better and better but it’s kind of always been
There in the in the tank with that kind of road as you said your freshman year you know not uh not seeing any time and then last year out of the bullpen have you embraced that kind of mentality of of you know coming out of the bullpen
And being a guy that you know comes in in certain situations comes in certain matchups that sort of thing yeah yeah last year I kind of realized early on I was going to be like a big hey lefties like that’s going to be your thing there was times last year
Where I throw one pitch like twice on a weekend so I I play two times but I throw two pitches like either ground ball it’s a hit i h it on but like that’s what I was in there to do I was in there to get that guy out and then
This year it’s kind of moved I’ve definitely progressed a little bit but I can still do both of hey like we need you for some Innings here you need to eat up some time cuz like shankman can’t pitch every inning right yeah but um but
I can also do the come in with like B guys on base and get someone out and uh UNCW tomorrow last year you had a handful of punchouts in one of the games uh with them uh when you look at uh you know that instate rival aspect uh coach
Talked about you guys being ready at Elon with Wilmington I have to imagine even it’s one of those midweeks but there’s no letup I mean this is uh one that you guys I’m sure fired up about yeah no it’s a phone I I did have their
Number a little bit last year I I had I got them pretty good in the one this year as well but it’s just they don’t like the breaking balls at all at all uh Eric good luck the rest of the way thank you for uh being here with us tonight
And uh we’ll look forward to talking to you again really soon thank you appreciate it ER Eric Richie great job with him Ryan mccristal best smile of uh any pirate on the team right he’ll be here talking to us uh next on uh inside pirate Athletics ECU Athletics would
Like to thank Young’s Physical Therapy the official Physical Therapy provider of the Pirates and uh we’ll have more of the program right after this he ran a red light and Ted me got rear ended on my bike his fault end of story don’t brain it right just when you think
You’ve got it all figured out you realize you need Wayne Harvey injury cases are never simple there’s always more to the story of as you you can’t refuse but it’s my job to get you a fair subm been in a w you need the Wayne Harden difference we had other companies out
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To to the eastern North Carolina CW for wnct9 weekend edition news at 10:00 then come back here for more local news at 11:00 on your side all week Long You’re locked on to inside pirate Athletics live from tiebreakers in Greenville pirate lacrosse team back at Johnson Stadium on Tuesday April 2nd so a week from tomorrow they’ll host non-conference Fox Clemson first draw scheduled for fin live admission free so be sure to head out and support your
Pirates we’ve got Ryan mccristal with us uh here as uh he joined us had a home run in the uh game yesterday and uh first one of the year it had to fill pretty good second I’m sorry was it the second okay yeah it’s all good though um
Second one of the year had to build feel better than the first it did especially cuz I didn’t think it was a home run when I hit it uh 10th pitch the at bat and the win kind of push home run I was just glad to see one go in Fair
Territory and then it went over the fence which is obviously gets the heart racing but yeah definitely felt good especially late in the game to get us one run closer so is that a qab it is quab it’s going to be like a double quab
I feel it’s a no matter what the result is after nine pitches it’s Auto quad yeah so Parker bird told me it really didn’t matter that I hit a home run it was a qu anyway I I guess you’re right uh you are more organized I am
Very tell us take us through that whole um process yeah it definitely didn’t take much to get more organized cuz I was not very organized at all in the first place but yeah no Coach G sat me down and it’s kind of a tougher conversation to have just letting me
Know like if you’re not consistent with anything you do then it’s kind of hard to be good at what you want to be good at especially to the level that we want to be doing things and so making my daily schedule and everything’s really just allowed me to have a little more
Freedom in my day just because I know what’s next there’s nothing that I don’t nothing it’s unknown really just being able to be more disciplined every single day and if there’s a little bit of spare time I’ll put that down and I’ll say I just really won’t put anything in that
Area but I’d rather do that than have to try and figure out what to do or scramble to do something or be late somewhere and so it’s really changed everything about my life not just the baseball side of things and being able to stick with that just every day has
Changed my life completely and success is coming a little bit right now but I’m more so excited the way things are off the field than they are on the field is is it like a planner you write it down physically or is it more like electronic
I started off doing it on my notes and then I wanted to start writing it down because I put a checklist at the bottom too just with a couple things that I wanted to accomplish each day and so I started writing it down and it’s way
Better for my memory that way I feel like a lot of people are that way where if it’s on your phone then might not remember it as well but I started writing it down and while I don’t write many things for school anymore my hand hurts a little bit but it’s definitely
Worth it Ron it feels like I mean y all obviously talk about culture a lot as team but y you have some very vulnerable conversations you know probably one-on-one with Coach but also team meetings and I’m sure youall had some after this past weekend so what does
That mean to you guys as players when y’all can be very honest and transparent like there’s no there’s nothing yall are trying to hide absolutely yeah no it’s it’s huge I think that the biggest thing that is different on the inside that I guess people probably see on the outside
Is just like how close-knit we really are and like how involved we are in every aspect of everyone’s life so it’s like what happens on the field happens on the field but like the more vulnerable you can be off the field the closer you can be with your teammates
The more connection there’s going to be when you are on the field and it’s really hard to not have things together off the field and be really talented and succeed on the field and I think that the way we’re able to really talk to each other and be open and honest really
Allows us to stay in check and really trust each other in every situation whether it’s on the field or not what are some of the things as a team you get you feel like you guys learned this this past weekend losing the series at UTSA um tough I feel like offensively
Definitely on Friday we we had a tendency early in the year with tray throwing it’s like Trey St we don’t really need that many runs obviously cuz he not going to give up that many but it was kind of open our eyes like obviously we knew Trey human but like when he’s
Pitching he’s just a different guy but it was kind of eye opening where it’s like we have to get runs early and we have to keep getting runs because really no lead safe in college baseball it’s just it’s a crazy Sport and it’s not the best team that always wins it’s the team
That plays the best so just going out there and keeping add keep adding runs especially for a game like Saturday to happen right after that and then really just I don’t know it’s tough cuz obviously you don’t like losing Road Series especially conference series but I don’t think that much has really
Changed with the play The Players or the staff or anything I feel like we know what we’re capable of and one weekend is not going to really make or break us you uh you had multiple hits every day of the weekend but I noticed Friday swung
At the first pitch all four times but hey three for four and obviously you hit the ball hard each time so uh you had to was it just a feeli thing or like hey like I’m you know first pitch is often best pitch yeah uh I one thing I
Definitely have bought into more recently is my Approach and everything and I think that’s why I’m starting to have a little more success but it just so happened that first pitch of each of bat was a really good pitch to hit and often times the first pitch is the best
One so I didn’t want to give it up but especially the first two at bats were fast balls and I hit him hard both times and he just hung a change up in the third one which is crazy I don’t understand got to spike it or something
But yeah I I I’ve always swung at the first pitch a lot because I like to be aggressive and JC said it last year to me and it was hilarious but he’s like you’re on offense you’re on offense you’re not on defense like that guy has
To throw it to you so kind of mentality that I’ve taken and it’s definitely starting to work a little bit we uh I had the the pleasure in 21 calling the state championship game that you guys won with Fuko Arena what are your memories from the state championship
That was awesome uh favorite memory is probably a trip that I hit to start game three but I’m not very fast so triples don’t happen very often one happened this weekend too which I’m good for my career now on those I’m sure but uh yeah definitely that and like looking at the
Student section after that was very memorable and seeing my brother in the crowd and everything was definitely something that I took away from that he’s a big he’s he’s always into it he’s always at the games a big fan that’s cool to have I guess be so close have
Your family and your brother and your parents be able to come to game yeah absolutely looking up uh my he actually announces me this year so on my walkup song We connected him announcing me instead of the PA announcers so something that is uh very I hold very
Close to my heart is him being able to do that and the relationship that I had with him and the way that he kind of lives through ECU Baseball time is awesome I think all of our guys kind of embraced it and yeah it’s incredible really what this place has given him and
Really the way that people love seeing him for a lot of time here he’s gotten way more TV time than I did so there definitely now I can tell him I might be getting a little more right now but yeah it’s definitely something I hold close
My heart and the MVP of the state championship series by the way somehow yeah somehow was that triple that’s what it was had to have been all right uh Ryan great to talk to you man hope you come back and we’ll get a chance to speak to you again in the absolutely all
Right Ryan mccristal with us everybody uh and did you know that Greenville utility spends money on helping their customers spend less money that’s right you can get a free energy audit at no cost to you or find out different ways you could save your utility bills on
Your utility bills make that at g.com Greenville Utilities proudly powering the Pirates JC will be with us Jacob Jets coward on the other side here of uh this break this is inside pirate Athletics from tiebreakers hi call it drive the unrelenting desire to become the person you were born to
Be ignited by a Moment the realization that a future you could only dream of is within reach at East Carolina University you won’t just imagine a path you’ll Forge one through hard work and the success that comes without surrender the journey that leads to your future and this is where it
Begins he ran a red light and toned me got rear ended on my bike his fault end of story no brain are right just when you think you’ve got it all figured out you realize you need Wayne Hardy injury cases are never simple there’s always more to the story offers you can’t
Refuse but it’s my job to get you a fair s been in a wck you need the Wayne harded difference being on your side means bringing you the most upto-date and accurate information we know how important it is for you to be informed on what’s happening in your community
Whether it’s the latest developments in local news or knowing what to expect for the day ahead with your storm team 9 weather forecast Morning Edition has you covered across the East we see new spot play the gameing and trending news watch wnct9 Morning Edition weekdays from 4:30 to
7: we had other companies out and easy BR easily beat their price we are offering $1,000 off your bathroom remodel plus an additional $300 off if you act right now give us a call or go online to easyr baths express.com hello entc goes all around the east from Atlantic Beach Newber ochre Co
Newport emmer Isles when did you get here just now Jacksonville Washington Kinston bord Warhead City Goldsboro Aiden Elizabeth City and from Greenville we’re living Ling local if you want the latest in local news reliable Storm Team 99 weather forecasts and everything in between we’ve got you covered watch 9 onyou side
Morning Edition weekdays from 4:30 to 7:00 trust wnct9 and your side news awarded for excellence with 17 honors including TV news anchor Team of the Year Ken watlington and Courtney Courtright good afternoon everyone I’m Ken watlington and I’m Courtney Courtright thanks for joining us and number one in covering investigative and
Political stories well wnct is your local election headquarters now the bill will be voted on shortly in the house before heading to Governor Cooper’s death thank you for letting us be on your side now back to inside pirate Athletics from tiebreakers in Greenville the 2024 pixin pick out spring game is April 13th
It’s presented by piggley wiggley events begin at 10:00 a.m. with football team autographs beginning at 10:30 a.m. spring kickoff game will be at 1:00 p.m. all events will be free and barbecue plates will be available ailable for purchase for more info head to ecupirates.com there’s also a baseball
Series that week in Charlotte isn’t it IO indeed that weekend yeah so that’ll be uh that’ll be a big one uh stepen iigo is here from Hoist the Colors I’m Patrick Johnson Jacob jenin coward joins us uh here from uh Greensboro um all the high schools are directional in Guilford
County yeah I think it’s it’s we’ve talked about it’s literally a high school for every direction it is which one Southeast Southeast yeah Southeast Gilford what’s the difference between that and South whatever is there South there’s a I mean there’s a southern Southwest Eastern yeah uh why’ they do
That and I guess Paige yeah there City there’s City schools and County Schools so yeah I got you so did you have any Crossover with Chad Stevens Southeast two years and his little brother Ryan that’s right for three years until he went to Grimsley so Southeast has been pretty good to the
Pars uh I guess between you and Chad and Ron so um well JC you obviously kind a tough weekend you know as far as results how do you feel like the team is kind of bounced back today just talking in meetings and everything from a mindset perspective yeah I mean we’re we’ve
Already put it behind us I we took last night to you know go over and review some things and the team meeting today to go over and um talk about what we can improve at but um overall we’re just worried about tomorrow and you know for
For you to this point the season you know you you’ve been pretty consistent I would say from day one offensively and defensively I want to ask defensively see how much work you put into that area of the game cuz you’ve made some awesome catches this year and you’ve made some
Great throws as well so how much time have you spin on that side of the ball yeah I think that’s always been uh something that is slowed me down a little bit um I mean you guys saw last year I was a staple in the lineup for
The first seven Innings of the game um but uh we we uh we put a lot of work in thanks to uh Blake hardigree and all the other coaches and um especially just I mean it doesn’t matter how how far or hard you can throw the ball if you have
No idea where it’s going and that was the case for most of my career so we did a lot of work on just honing it in accuracy getting a cleaner arm path stuff like that and the throw you know that UNCW game the first time y’all
Played them that that was a big throw it it kind of got forgotten about because it’s the game with the extras but like if you don’t make that throw the Pirates probably lose so um I don’t know have you made a a better throw than that that
You can think of or was that probably number one in your baseball career um my freshman year in the super I I threw one home and the guy like held up at third okay but I mean he wasn’t out cuz he didn’t I threw one into the Dugout
From center field in the fall scrimmage against Virginia my sophomore year I thought that was pretty cool but pretty good throw yeah just at least he threw it hard just a little off that’s all just a little off Jacob jobs coward is is with us uh here the um obviously
Banged up a lot last year the injury but you’ve come out this year only A Renewed Focus uh defensively and commitment defensively but seems like you’ve been really locked in at the plate this season also yeah um you know there’s freshman and sophomore year both um I’ve
Always had like some kind of soft tissue think slowing me down um uh something just you know sore pulled hammy and this year I’ve really taken the extra step um to to take care of my body off the field um and you know I can do
All the uh warm-ups and treatment that I that anybody can but if I’m not putting the right stuff in my body off the field that’s really what is separated so like a dietary change yeah dietary uh cutout alcohol anything like that so and it I feel better and I’m sleeping
Better taking a lot of pride in sleep and recovery and it’s uh gotten better for me you know I don’t know if step notic this a lot of guys I mean M Crystal was one of them but there’s other teammates that we have uh talked to of yours they’re now coming to you
For you know advice or you’re passing on imparting some knowledge on to them uh is that a role that uh you you’ve kind of embraced yeah I think um I’ve been blessed to um play from just about the the moment I I got here so um very
Blessed in that facet and then to be able to pour into the younger guys or just even guys my age my roommates stuff like that um is really really big for me so you and you and Ryan are roommates correct anybody else with you guys or just yall two Wyatt shankman and Aaron
Grower so how was that quartet is it pretty uh pretty electric no we have a good time um me and me and shank have like Jack and Jill rooms we share a bathroom uh and then Ryan and Aaron are on the other side of the house but we
Pretty much spend all our time in the family room we’re not really in our rooms alone so we have a good time so Ryan obviously does a lot of talking uh who who’s number two in the house as far as talking probably me yeah yeah you Ryan’s telling Ryan’s saying that I’m
Number one I don’t know that’s accurate um but no honestly I mean you guys have probably talked to shankman in the media think he’s a quiet guy he’s he’s really not and just I mean it’s probably just like everybody else that you talk to in the media that seems
Quiet they’re just shy yeah turn off the the cameras and uh he talks little more um I tell you what he’s crazy coming off the mound although I I teased him like he’s got to come up with a new celebration it’s the same thing every
Time but it works if it works I why would you that is true that’s true maybe he needs to just keep it the same um UNCW tomorrow rematch I’m sure you guys are looking forward to that so just how excited you be back at home man cuz
You’all played a lot of road games here yeah I mean it feels like 22 um when we played more road than away games is through the midpoint I think yeah and uh no it’s great man I mean it was a long road trip far away um blessed enough to
Be able to Charter home but um really excited to play at home tomorrow first home midweek of the year if I’m not mistaken I mean it’s crazy P Stripes yeah the W pins are out yeah all right hey great to talk to you thank you for coming by here continued success this
Season thank you JJC awesome stuff Jacob Jenkins coward with us here pirate fans check out the Pizza Hut Big Dinner Box however you want to dinner they’ve got you covered thank you to Pizza Hut the official Pizza of ECU Athletics we’ll uh wrap things up for inside pirate
Athletics on this Monday night stay with us here on the ECU Sports Network here at wnct we know eastern North Carolina is constantly growing and changing with multiple newscast all week long you can trust us to keep you in the know we’re out in the community putting a spotlight
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History the CW is your new home for college football as we team up with the the ACC for 13 weeks of electrifying games Saturdays will be legendary the ACC on the CW it all kicks off Saturday September 9th he ran a red light and T-boned me got rear ended on my bike his
Fault end of story no brainer right just when you think you’ve got it all figured out you realize you need Wayne Harvey injury cases are never simple there’s always more to the story offers you can’t refuse but it’s my job to get you a fair settlement been in a w you need
The Wayne Hardy Difference Trust wnct9 and your side news awarded for excellence with 17 honors including TV news anchor Team of the Year Ken watlington and Courtney Courtright good afternoon everyone I’m Ken watlington and I’m Courtney Courtright thanks for joining us and number number one in covering investigative and political stories well wnct is your local election
Headquarters now the bill will be voted on shortly in the house before heading to Governor Cooper’s death thank you for letting us be on your side if you want the latest in local news reliable Storm Team 9 weather forecasts and everything in between we’ve got you covered watch 9
On your side Morning Edition weekdays from 4:30 to 7: Heiser Bush bu light beer St Louis Missouri you’re listening to inside pirate Athletics live from tiebreakers in Greenville Pirates back at it tomorrow at home against UNCW in a midweek Clash the first midweek of the Year inside the friendly confines first pitch is
Scheduled for 6 p.m. 5:45 air time on the ECU Sports Network with scooter and coacho and you can get your tickets by heading to ecupirates.com as Cliff Godwin rejoins us uh here it was interesting to talk to uh those three players uh and they’re all kind of three
Unique conversations and uh three unique personalities it kind of Dawns on me you know they the the thing that they always kind of come back to is the the the togetherness and being there for each other well and we’ve said this from the beginning of the year even back in the
Fall of how close-knit this group’s been and it’s a credit to them that they’ve just invested in one another their relationships and um it really has been all about the team I mean for guys that obviously have individual aspirations of playing professional baseball to get drafted and stuff and to hear you know
Ryan mccristal talk about JB and how you know I brought it up and then he had it written down on his daily schedule to talk to J to day and that’s not a me thing it’s actually a God thing because he’s working through me if that makes
Sense so but that the cool thing that I see every day and the care level and they’re humans like all three of us sitting up here like they’re not perfect by any means so um I made a bad offensive call on Friday night that turned the game around so um and I told
Him I apologize for it after after game like hey bad call they call our Bluff and it’s like running a fake Punt and they go we know you’re running the fake Punt and we’re going to hey throw the ball to second base so it’s going to
Happen yep yeah so it is what it is coach I know you are focus on UNCW but just with the Thursday the Saturday series do you you know if you’ll keep the rotation like you know the same as far as bumping your Savage up a day or
Is that too beig deter your Savage is definitely going to go on uh Thursday obviously there’s weather in the forast so um there’s a possibility might play double header on Friday so that might you know help you savage so um to keep him on normal rest but somebody’s going
To have to bump up for sure so we’ll see but our guys are prepared for it AK does an unbelievable job getting them prepared and Trey got off the mound today so instead of his normal Tuesday coach uh great to have you here again I
Think we’ll have you for the rest of the way we have these shows so it’s awesome to talk to you and always appreciate the time a bunch of double headers coming bunch of double headers coming up let’s hope there’s not one Friday I hope coach Palumbo don’t want me to go recruiting
On a Monday you know well just send him over if you do if he does send him over we might both be on the road though we might have to just send the players over that’d be fine look they’d handle it fine they’d handle it great so get
Coacho up here that’s right him talk it be great to have him on all right uh Cliff thank you good luck tomorrow against UNC I appreciate it all right Cliff Godwin with us ladies and gentlemen thanks to JJC also uh Eric Richie Ryan mistal thanks to stepen iigo
Scooter back at the studio and David horn Patrick Johnson saying so long Everybody
