Spring Break
Column: ECU way prevails again
Jared Jackson, Staff Writer
Issue date: 6/3/09 Section: Sports
I admit it. I'm a pessimist.
When ECU was trailing South Carolina 6-0 Monday night after four innings of play in the Greenville Regional Championship, I thought it was over.
After the Pirates fought back to cut the lead to 7-6, the Gamecocks right fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. blasted a homer of the right field wall in the top of the eighth inning that put S.C. back up by three.
About this time, I was sending out text messages saying things like, "Game over" and "We gave it a good run," as well as turning to my friends and fellow Pirates next to me and whispering the same things under my breath.
That all too familiar sickening stomach feeling that always creeps in when you know your favorite team is about to go down crept it, and the nail, in my opinion, was already in the coffin.
This, after all, was the first time that the Pirates had actually hosted a NCAA Regional on campus and even with the rich tradition that is ECU baseball, who knows when the next chance to host would come?
Most of all I felt bad for the seniors who had put in four years of hard work to not only reach the longtime goal of ECU baseball to host a Regional but also reach the College World Series. And now suddenly it was about to end. The phrase, "So close, yet so far" popped in my mind and all I could do was cross my arms and lay them upon the outfield wall in left field and stare at my feet.
I've been covering ECU athletics for three years now, and for the first time since I can remember, I was actually openly cheering at a sporting event. I was pulling hard and it seemed to be to no avail.
Trailing by a three-run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth, my good friend Dennis Fryer told me, "I'm confident man. We are going to win this. This is the ECU way."
Maybe it was the confidence in Fryer's voice or the absurd knockoff purple Converses with the ECU logo he had bought earlier for good luck, but I actually felt like we could win.
When ECU was trailing South Carolina 6-0 Monday night after four innings of play in the Greenville Regional Championship, I thought it was over.
After the Pirates fought back to cut the lead to 7-6, the Gamecocks right fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. blasted a homer of the right field wall in the top of the eighth inning that put S.C. back up by three.
About this time, I was sending out text messages saying things like, "Game over" and "We gave it a good run," as well as turning to my friends and fellow Pirates next to me and whispering the same things under my breath.
That all too familiar sickening stomach feeling that always creeps in when you know your favorite team is about to go down crept it, and the nail, in my opinion, was already in the coffin.
This, after all, was the first time that the Pirates had actually hosted a NCAA Regional on campus and even with the rich tradition that is ECU baseball, who knows when the next chance to host would come?
Most of all I felt bad for the seniors who had put in four years of hard work to not only reach the longtime goal of ECU baseball to host a Regional but also reach the College World Series. And now suddenly it was about to end. The phrase, "So close, yet so far" popped in my mind and all I could do was cross my arms and lay them upon the outfield wall in left field and stare at my feet.
I've been covering ECU athletics for three years now, and for the first time since I can remember, I was actually openly cheering at a sporting event. I was pulling hard and it seemed to be to no avail.
Trailing by a three-run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth, my good friend Dennis Fryer told me, "I'm confident man. We are going to win this. This is the ECU way."
Maybe it was the confidence in Fryer's voice or the absurd knockoff purple Converses with the ECU logo he had bought earlier for good luck, but I actually felt like we could win.
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