NEWSLETTER
Hello and welcome to the Team Behind the Team.
You
are invited to share in the events that will show support for the East Carolina
Softball team. This newsletter is here to help you keep up with all that is going
on with ECU Softball, but if you want more, go to www.Piratesoftballers.com.
NEWSLETTER 7, May 19, 2008
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ECU SOFTBALLERS FOR SHOWING PRIDE AND
PASSION AS THEY PLAYED IN THE NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT REGIONAL IN BATON ROUGE.
THANKS TO ALL OF THE SOFTBALL SENIORS FOR BEING PIRATES AND
SHOWING WHAT THAT MEANS ON AND OFF THE FIELD.
Tis the season
for the awards of all kinds, so with pride I announce the softball team award
winners:
Congratulations to Stacey Andrews for making the All-Tournament
Team
Congratulations
to Cristen Aona and Charina Sumner for being named to the Conference USA Softball All-Academic Team. (LINK)
Congratulations
to Cristen Aona, Britt Howell, Charina Sumner, and Kaui Tom for earning
the Conference USA Commissioner’s
Academic Medal during the 2007‐08 academic
year. The medals are given to those C‐USA student‐athletes who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or
better. The following is a complete list of the 36 medal winners for ECU.
(LINK)
Congratulations
to Jessica Johnson for being named to the PCS Phosphates All-Academic
Team for 2008.
Congratulations
to Erin St. Ledger for receiving the Walter and Marie Williams "Spirit
of the East" Post-Eligibility Scholarship Award.
Congratulations to 12 members of the 2008 Softball team for earning
the C-USA Honor Roll Award. Here is the complete list of all 192 ECU
Student-Athletes who earned the award. (LINK)
Congratulations
to Cristen Aona, Jessica Johnson, Charina Sumner, and Kaui Tom for receiving the
Academic Excellence Award which is given to sophomores, juniors and seniors who
have earned a 3.5 or better cumulative grade point average.
BLOGGERS UPDATE:
Thanks
to all of the players who took time out of their busy schedules to share their
lives with us. I look forward to next
year’s round of blogs when the 2009 season begins.
If you missed the blogs, they will remain on the web site for
your summer reading pleasure.
A special thanks to
all of the ball girls for helping out. Have
fun this summer. Go PIRATES!
May 17, 2008
The 2008 Pirate Softball season came to an end as
ECU lost to LSU 9-1 on day 2 of the NCAA Regionals. The lost to University of LA. at Lafayette
2-1 day one, but came out of the loser’s bracket to defeat Miss. Valley St.
4-2. LSU lost earlier in the day to ULL
setting up the matchup of the Purple and Golds!
*This is the 1st time that ECU softball
won a game in the NCAA tournament.
*This is ECU’s 2nd time making an appearance in the
NCAA tournament.
Go to www.Piratesoftballers.com
for all the links to
the tournament related stories.
May 11, 2008
CONGRATULATIONS ECU PIRATE
SOFTBALL. TODAY YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO
BATON ROUGE FOR THE NCAA SOFTBALL REGIONALS.
The 2008 regular season ended with ECU’s RPI at 51
and SOS 31. This plus a strong finish
was rewarded with an invitational as an at large team to the NCAA Softball
Tournament. The last time an ECU team
went was in 1999 with an automatic berth as the Big South Champion.
May 9, 2008
PRIDE, PASSION,
PIRATES
*This is the 5th season on a row that
ECU softball had 35 wins or more.
*The 36 win season almost came to an end for the
2008 Pirate Softballers as they lost to Houston in the semifinals 5-1. The
Pirates managed 7 hits which included a home run by Erin St. Ledger.
*Round 1 of CUSA had ECU winning 7-2 thanks to
homeruns by Stacey Andrews to tie it in the 6th and Cristen Aona to seal the
deal in the 7th. Brooke Swann pitched a 3 hitter with 9 SO's.
*Congratulations to UCF for winning 2008 CUSA
Softball Championship.
April 29, 2008
Pirates defeated #18 Virginia Tech in the second game of
the DH 4-1.
NEW: COACHES’ ENDOWMENT INFORMATION:
It takes money to run the Pirate
ship. There are ways to give back to East Carolina University. One way
that will make sure your donation goes directly to ECU softball is through an
endowment. "Creating a Legacy Today for the Champions of
Tomorrow." We
are in the process of creating a COACHES’
endowment of $30,000+ for ECU
Softball. The donations from as many donors as necessary may be spread out
over a 5 year span. If you want more information about endowments, please
contact East Carolina University Educational Foundation directly
at youngd@ecu.edu.
The other way is to join the Pirate Club to show support for women’s athletics at ECU. If you need more information or to donate go online to www.ecupirateclub.com, and please write 16393 in the comment space. That will let ECU know where your heart is and give me some credit. THANK YOU.
This
is the last newsletter until fall ball begins. WWW.Blackbeardsballers.com will be available for your pleasure this
summer, but 2007-2008 will be archived when the 2008-2009 season begins.
FROM
THE DESK OF THE WEBMASTER:
It
has been my pleasure to serve the PIRATE SOFTBALL NATION. Blackbeard’s Ballers, the Team behind the
Team, will only get bigger and better as ECU continues its quest for the NCAA
Softball World Series.
This
has been a most unusual year as far as injuries and disappointments. But along
with the downs came the ups which included a surprise trip to the NCAA’s, a win
in the regionals, Keli Harrell moving over from player to student assistant
coach, Senior Stacey Andrews becoming the offensive leader, Freshman Suzanne
Riggs becoming the #2 pitcher, Brooke Swann taking over the #1 spot with 26
wins, and the team finishing the regular season winning 37 games for the 5th
straight year of 35+ wins in a season.
Also there were sweet wins over UNC and Va. Tech, Coach Kee got her 500th
win, the season ended with a strength of schedule in the 30’s, and this
remarkable team played as one team, one heart.
Along with all of this, these young women managed to finish the season
with much academic success including a team GPA of 3.22.
ECU
is very lucky to have Coach Kee and Coach Kozlowski as their softball coaches.
These ladies, who are greatly respected by the other coaches in the collegiate
ranks, continue to do what is necessary not only to make the ball players
winners on the field, but winners in the classroom and the community. Talk about Pirate Pride and Passion, they
have it. Hopefully they will be rewarded
for this pride and passion with the long overdue new softball complex in the
next couple of years.
I
feel very fortunate to have met many fans, families, players, and former players
this year. I look forward to seeing
everyone next season. Thanks for being
part of Blackbeard’s Ballers.
Jane, a Pirate since 1966