GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina baseball team will make its 33rd NCAA Regional appearance after earning an at-large bid to the Charlottesville Regional in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Championship which will be held at Davenport Field inside Disharoon Park.
The Pirates will square off with regional No. 3 seed Oklahoma (31-26) in a first-round contest at 7 p.m. Friday while top seed Virginia will face No. 4 seed Army West Point at Noon. ECU’s game against the Sooners, last year’s NCAA tournament runner-up, will air live on ESPN2.
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The Pirates have never faced Oklahoma or Army on the diamond but are 24-30 against the Cavaliers in the teams’ all-time series. East Carolina hosted Virginia in the 2022 Greenville Regional, winning a 4-2 decision to advance to the regional final. The Pirates also knocked off the Cavaliers in the 2016 Charlottesville Regional on a Travis Watkins walkoff three-run home run that sent ECU to the regional final where it defeated William & Mary to advance to the Lubbock Super Regional.
NCAA baseball tournament bracket
East Carolina has qualified for regional competition in 19 of the last 24 seasons (regionals were not contested in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and seven times during head coach Cliff Godwin‘s eight-year tenure after traveling to the Coral Gables (Fla.) Regional in 2015, Charlottesville (Va.) Regional in 2016 and hosting the 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 NCAA Greenville Regionals.
The Charlottesville Regional is paired with the Conway Regional hosted by No. 10 overall seed Coastal Carolina. That field also includes No. 2 seed Duke, No. 3 seed UNCW and No. 4 seed Rider.
The Pirates, who won their fourth-straight American Athletic Conference regular season crown before advancing to the title game of the AAC Baseball Championship, holds a 45-17 overall record and have registered 40 wins in a campaign for the fifth-straight year. East Carolina also put a program single-season record 11 players on the various all-conference teams while Danny Beal, Carter Cunningham, Josh Moylan and Jacob Starling were tabbed to the AAC Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team.
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Of the 64 teams announced Monday, the Pirates own a 10-10 overall record in 2023 against nine institutions: Campbell (0-3), Charlotte (1-0), Duke (0-1), George Mason (3-0), Indiana (1-0), NC State (1-1), North Carolina (2-1), Tulane (2-2) and UNCW (0-2).
Each of the 16 regionals features four teams in a double-elimination format. The regionals will be played from Friday, June 2 to Monday, June 5 (if necessary). Selection of the eight super regional hosts will be announced on www.NCAA.com/mcws, Tuesday, June 6 at 10 a.m. (ET). The College World Series begins play Friday, June 16, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
