Player development and retention has been the backbone of East Carolina’s success under head coach Cliff Godwin in the last decade, producing eight regional appearances in nine full seasons, including five regional hosting bids in the last six years, and five consecutive AAC regular season championships (six straight seasons when counting the 2018 AAC tournament title).
Still, times in college sports are changing, and with the introduction of the transfer portal a handful of years ago – combined with the growth of NIL in college baseball – it’s created new challenges. Several players from last year’s freshman class ended up leaving the program after just one initial year. Some had big success. Others did not. There were also other players in the program who had been in multiple years who ended up moving on. Alec Makarewicz, ECU’s former starting third baseman, was the headliner. But there were others.
Conversely, incoming players were less frequent last offseason, but ECU still added a handful of players. The returning roster was pretty top heavy with experience, so there weren’t quite as many needs as there will be this coming offseason, but the Pirates still took a chance on five incoming transfers. We look back at the offseason that was in terms of transfers in, and out, and how the group ended up performing during the 2024 campaign. 
ECU finished the season 46-17 after falling to Evansville in the Greenville Regional championship.
