Cliff Godwin, who has been a part of 10 NCAA Regional and two College World Series appearances coaching at the Division I level, enters his fifth year as head baseball coach at ECU.
A four-year letterman for the Pirates, Godwin was appointed as ECU’s 16th skipper in the school’s history on June 25, 2014 after completing a three-year stay at the University of Mississippi.
During his four years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to three NCAA Regional berths (2018 Greenville Regional host), a Super Regional appearance, two American Athletic Conference Tournament titles and a 154-91-1 (.628) overall record. Eight players have earned All-America status, seven were NCAA All-Regional selections, 12 were named all-conference (11 first-teamers), while six were drafted by Major League Baseball teams.
Off the field, his teams have excelled in the class room by registering a 3.05 or higher grade point average in eight of nine semesters, including a team-best 3.52 in the Fall of 2017, which bested the previous mark of 3.42 (Fall 2015). Under Godwin, a two-time Academic All-America selection, 150 student-athletes have been named to the ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll, while over 50 Pirates have earned inclusion on The American All-Academic Team maintaining a minimum 3.00 GPA.
Following the 2018 season, the Pirates earned their third-straight American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and AAC Team Academic Excellence Awards. In 2017, two of Godwin’s players (Travis Watkins/first-team and Charlie Yorgen/third-team) earned CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades, while in 2018 Jake Agnos was a Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District 3 First-Team selection.
On July 12, 2018 Godwin signed a one-year contract extension securing his position through the 2023 season.
Godwin made an immediate impact in 2015 by leading the Pirates to a 40-22 record, which included a second-place regular season finish (15-9) in The American. The 2015 American Coach-of-the-Year became the first skipper in program history to win 40 games in his initial season, guided ECU to a conference tournament title in its first year in the league and directed a return to NCAA post-season play – its first since 2012 – as the No. 2 seed in the Coral Gables Regional.
The Snow Hill, N.C. native followed with another NCAA Regional berth (No. 3 seed in Charlottesville) and a Super Regional appearance (Lubbock, Texas) in 2016. ECU, which posted a 38-23-1 record and finished second in The American (15-8-1), rolled through regional play picking up wins against No. 20 Bryant, No. 10 Virginia and William & Mary en route to claiming the Charlottesville crown – its fourth regional title. The Pirates continued their magical run, defeating No. 5 national seed Texas Tech in the opener of the Super Regional and came 90 feet away from making their first appearance in the College World Series.
In year three, Godwin led the Pirates to their second American Baseball Championship game after winning three-straight in Clearwater, Fla. before falling to No. 17 Houston, which ended ECU’s season with a 32-28 overall record. The senior battery of Evan Kruczynski (Senior CLASS/first-team) and Travis Watkins (NCBWA/third-team) both earned All-America honors in 2017 while Watkins, Eric Tyler and Charlie Yorgen all earned first-team all-conference honors. Spencer Brickhouse was named to three Freshman All-America squads, while off the field Watkins (first-team) and Yorgen (third-team) both took home CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades for their work in the classroom.
Godwin closed out the year serving as an assistant coach for USA Baseball working with the 14U National Team Development Program (NTDP) where he guided the Stars quad to a 3-0 series sweep over the Stripes at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.
Last season, Godwin guided his club to a 44-18 overall record which included a second AAC Tournament Championship, a No. 12 national and top seed at the Greenville Regional. It marked the sixth time in school history the Pirates garnered the top seed in a regional and just the second time ECU has hosted postseason play at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. Bryant Packard racked up a ton of honors being named to a program-best seven All-America teams, earning AAC Player-of-the-Year accolades and NCAA All-Greenville Regional honors. Chris Holba was a third-team (NCBWA) All-America selection, while Alec Burleson became the fourth Pirate under Godwin to claim Freshman All-America honors. Seven Pirates earned all-conference honors (four first-team) and four were named to the AAC All-Tournament Team with Brickhouse taking home Most Outstanding Player honors.
one to consider is Jim Foster at Army.
I’d hope he calls manieri and Murphy for some input...but not holding my breath
But prob some candidates with head coach experience may be better
I believe he's still at Don Bosco isn't he? I believe we need someone with a record of success, hopefully at a northern university. Rooney doesn't even seem a step up from Aoki.
Read his bio. Played at ND for Murphy. Worked for Murphy at ASU. Unsure if he is tainted by NCAA issues at ASU. Rooney was high school coach at Malvern Prep in PA.