By Staff
Terry HollandSpecial to the Daily News
Congratulations to the
Pirate baseball team and
coaching staff for a great
regular season that earned
ECU and the Greenville community
the opportunity to
host the first NCAA Baseball
Regional to be played right
here at “home.” This could
never have happened without
the tremendous support of the
best baseball fans in the country,
who had the foresight to
build Clark-LeClair Stadium
and then provide a championship
game atmosphere.
An NCAA Championship
event allows our community to
provide our visitors and the rest
of the intercollegiate athletic
world with a first-class eastern
North Carolina experience. The
sportsmanship and hospitality
exhibited by Pirate baseball
fans has provided this excellent
opportunity to do everything
possible to enhance Greenville’s
reputation as a great baseball
community.
NCAA events have their
own rules, policies and expectations.
Most notable among
those are the fact that no
“pass outs” are allowed. This
means that once a ticketholder
enters the game, if that
individual leaves the stadium,
they will not be allowed to
re-enter the stadium with the
same game ticket. The NCAA
requires an increased emphasis
on sportsmanship and
hospitality, as well a clear ban
on the use of alcohol in the stadium
and at NCAA-sanctioned
functions. The NCAA also
expects all teams to be treated
equally by the game public
address announcers, video
board productions, etc. Unruly
and/or disrespectful fans for any
team will be asked to leave the
stadium and will not be allowed
to return for later games.
The NCAA bid submitted by
ECU allows for 3,000 reserved
seats and 1,500 Jungle General
Admission (outfield berm)
tickets for a total attendance
of 4,500 per session. At this
time, there are approximately
500 reserved seat tickets and
1,000 Jungle General Admission
tickets remaining.
ECU fans should take advantage
of the opportunity to purchase
all-session tickets before
those tickets go on sale to the
general public at 9:00 a.m. today.
Single-session (game) tickets, if
available, will only be sold prior
to each game at the Clark-LeClair
Stadium Ticket Office.
Becoming a “host” team on
a regular basis is the first step
to becoming a strong baseball
program that has a chance to
get to Omaha every year. Winning
the regional you host is
the next step in that process and
then earning the right to host a
Super Regional is the next step.
Building a strong program that
can take those significant steps
regularly does not come easily.
Constructively handling winning
and losing is the most difficult
step for any coaching staff,
team and fan base in any sport.
We are still building the proper
mindset for moving from being
a very good regional baseball
program to one that competes
at the national level annually.
Very few programs are capable
of taking that step because it
requires a tremendous amount
of discipline and hard work to
even have a chance.
One thing’s for sure – the Pirate Nation is now more important in that quest than they have ever been. Thank you for helping us get to this opportunity and for your discipline and enthusiasm to finish the job.
Please note:
The only pedestrian entrance to the Jungle Parking Lot will be through the Charles Street Gate.
Reserved seat ticket holders can go back and forth to the Jungle (outfield berm) but cannot go to the Jungle parking lot once they have entered the stadium.
Jungle General Admission ticket holders can go back and forth to the concession stands and bathrooms in the stadium but cannot go into the reserved seating area during ECU games. Jungle General Admission ticket holders may sit in unoccupied seats in the reserved seat sections in the upper level only during non-ECU games.
Terry Holland is the East Carolina athletics director.