Three things to know as East Carolina faces Vanderbilt in an NCAA baseball Super Regional
Beginning Friday, the East Carolina Pirates will face the Vanderbilt Commodores in an NCAA baseball Super Regional in Nashville, Tennessee.
Heading into the matchup, here are three things to know.
Gavin Williams will pitch either Friday or Saturday
The Pirates, in at least one game this weekend, will be led by junior pitcher Gavin Williams, according to head coach Cliff Godwin.
“We haven’t discussed it yet,” Godwin said when asked if Williams would pitch Friday. “We’re gonna see how everybody continues to feel. But we’ll figure it out in the next day or so.”
Williams has totaled 117 strikeouts this season. He also holds a 10-0 record, which is tied for the second-most wins without a loss in the country. Williams last pitched against UNC Charlotte on Saturday in the Greenville Regional, throwing a team-high nine strikeouts.
Through the season, Williams proved to be a difference-maker for ECU.
The Pirates reached the Super Regional in 2019
The last time ECU played a full season, the team reached the Super Regional. The Pirates traveled to Louisville, where they were swept by the Cardinals. Scoring just one run in two games, offensive production must increase this time around to knock off Vanderbilt.
With the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the team did not participate in postseason play. This year’s Super Regional, essentially, serves as the second consecutive appearance for ECU at this stage of the tournament.
ECU is not worried about being underdogs
East Carolina enters this weekend’s matchup as the 13th ranked team in the country, while Vanderbilt sits at No. 4. According to Draft Kings, the odds for Vanderbilt to win the College Baseball World Series is +900, while ECU sits at +3300.
For the Pirates, however, the focus is not on public perception but rather their own abilities as a team. Godwin said that the team wants to “go in and play our best baseball.”
“I don’t think anybody gives us a snowball’s chance in hell to win the Super Regionals,” Godwin said. “So we’re gonna go out there and compete and see what happens.”
These sentiments were echoed by sophomore infielder Connor Norby.
“We look at them no differently than we look at anyone else,” Norby said. “We prepare the same. Yeah they’re good, but so are we.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Three things to know as East Carolina faces Vanderbilt in an NCAA baseball Super Regional."
