Baseball Team Will Be Recognized For Conference USA and Greenville Regional Crowns
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Pirate fans are encouraged to stay in their seats at halftime of Thursday nights nationally televised football game on ESPN when East Carolina plays host to No. 22 Va. Tech inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, as the 2009 East Carolina baseball team will be honored for their accomplishments.
The Pirates (46-20, 17-7 C-USA), who have made 10 NCAA Regional appearances in the last 11 seasons, claimed the 2009 Conference USA regular season and 2009 Greenville Regional titles before advancing to their third NCAA Super Regional on the way to a 46-20 overall record.
ECU landed the most All C-USA selections with seven, including a league-best five first-teamers in Stephen Batts, Chris Heston, Seth Maness, Kyle Roller and Ryan Wood. Brad Mincey and Trent Whitehead were named second-team All C-USA and Kevin Brandt became the 12th Pirate selected to the All-Freshman squad since 2002.
Head Coach Billy Godwin, who ranks fourth on ECU’s all-time wins list with 161 victories, was named Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year after guiding the Pirates to their first regular season C-USA crown since 2004. In four years at the helm of the baseball program, Godwin has led the Pirates to three consecutive NCAA appearances, became the second coach in school history to win 40-plus games in three consecutive seasons (Keith LeClair: 1999-2002) and has had 15 players selected in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
2009 Pirate Honors
- Stephen Batts: ABCA All-Atlantic Region, First-Team All C-USA, Two-time C-USA Hitter-of-the-Week.
- Kevin Brandt: Freshman All-America (Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball), Second-Team Freshman All-America (Ping!Baseball), NCAA Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team, C-USA All-Freshman Team, C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Week.
- Billy Godwin: C-USA Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year
- Brandon Henderson: NCAA Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team, ECU’s honorary No. 23 jersey.
- Chris Heston: First-Team All C-USA, C-USA Newcomer-of-the-Year.
- Seth Maness: First-Team All C-USA, Two-time C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Week.
- Brad Mincey: Second-Team All C-USA, C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Week.
- Kyle Roller: First-Team All-America (ABCA/Rawlings and Ping!Baseball), First-Team All C-USA, NCAA Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team, C-USA Hitter-of-the-Week, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Hitter-of-the-Week, Collegebaseballinsider.com Central Regional Player-of-the-Week.
- Ryan Wood: First-Team All-America (Ping!Baseball), Second-Team All-America (NCBWA), Third-Team All-America (Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America and ABCA/Rawlings), First-Team All C-USA, NCAA Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team.
- Trent Whitehead: NCAA Greenville Regional Most Outstanding Player, Second-Team All C-USA, C-USA All-Tournament Team, set ECU’s single-season hit record with 105 base knocks.
(Press Release)