The four C's of judging a good diamond are Clarity, Cut, Color and Carat Weight (thank you Google).  

Judging greatness should be determined by the four P's:  Pitching, Production, Persistence and of course, PIRATES. 

East Carolina's baseball and softball teams have been nothing short of stellar on the diamonds in the last three weeks. 

Billy Godwin's Purple and Gold are coming off perhaps the best weekend series in school history, a three game sweep of 7th ranked Cal State Fullerton.  Fullerton had not been swept since January of 2004, the same year they won the College World Series. 

The Pirates didn't just win three games, they dominated the Titans 20-6 during the three game stanza. 

Starting pitchers T.J. Hose and Dustin Sasser were incredible.  The bullpen was nearly untouchable and the bats were smoking hot.  ECU didn't use the long ball, hitting only two homers in the series.  However, consistent productivity and big innings ruled Clark-LeClair Stadium. 

The guys have won nine of their last ten games with the only loss coming in extra innings to NC State.  With ten more games left in this home stand, ECU can really make a statement heading into the Conference USA schedule. 

I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong.  Last month, I wrote that Pirate fans shouldn't raise the bar too high for this year's team.  Perhaps the bar is right where it should be, the Pirates just needed to raise their level to meet it.  And they did that this weekend.

As for the ECU Softball Pirates, Coach Tracey Kee's team has won ten in a row and 13 of its last 15 games.  More impressively, during the ten game win streak, ECU pitching has allowed a total of six runs, and only five were earned runs. 

Senior pitcher Kelli Harrell, a former JH Rose high star, just set the all-time Conference USA record for career strikeouts with 863 and has a stunning 0.91 earned run average this season, which tops Conference USA for starting pitchers. 

So, the Diamond Dogs are hitting on all cylinders, and pitching on all cylinders too, I guess.  Now, we move into the world of conference play and it's time to see if the diamonds continue to shine bright on the Pirate Nation.
 
Chris Stansbury