Baseball Pirates get tough

East Carolina catcher Jake Washer works in the Pirates' bullpen last Thursday at Clark-LeClair Stadium. (Aileen Devlin/The Daily Reflector)The simplest thing East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin can relate fall baseball workouts to is spring football practice.

The daily repetitions can be a grind, but they are important for player development and team chemistry. When the ECU baseball team hit its stride late last season to earn an NCAA regional bid in Godwin’s first year leading his alma mater, many of the players referenced the importance of fall workouts making the team better.

Many of those players — and 17 first-year Pirates — have been at Clark-LeClair Stadium in recent weeks for practices…