GREENVILLE — After a week of chilly weather in Greenville, the weekend will bring warmer days and the start of a new East Carolina baseball season.

The Pirates will kick off the season against Longwood Friday afternoon with junior starter Evan Kruczynski toeing the rubber. The Lancers ran a 22-34 record last season (9-15 Big South) and graduated their top pitcher and hitter off of last year’s team.

The Pirates are still buzzing off of an American Athletic Conference tournament championship last May and have returned most starters for the 2016 campaign. Though his team is a favorite in the opening weekend and a week away from facing defending national champion Virginia, head coach Cliff Godwin said his team must stay locked into this series.

“One of the things we talk about within our program — and it’s not coach speak — is that baseball, more so than any other sport, the best team doesn’t necessarily win,” Godwin said. “The team that plays the best wins. There were games last year that, probably on paper, a team was better than us but we won. So we really have to focus on the first pitch, the first game, we need to worry about Longwood then we’ll move forward.”

Kruczynski is coming off of a strong sophomore season and his first full season with ECU after throwing less than eight innings in his freshman year. Last year, the junior earned the most starts (16) for ECU and logged a 3.17 earned runs average, which took a jump at the end of the year as he neared 100 innings pitched.

The southpaw said he worked on strength and stamina over the offseason to avoid a similar tail off. ECU has a rare combination at the top of its rotation as junior and fellow lefty Jacob Wolfe will take the ball Saturday to start. Like Kruczynski, Wolfe didn’t see many innings as a freshman but earned a critical starter role as a sophomore. Wolfe recorded a 5-2 record to go along with a 3.35 ERA.

Godwin recently announced Jimmy Boyd as the Sunday starter. The senior struggled at times in his first year at the Division I level, but seemed to find his footing as the season progressed. Ultimately, Boyd had a 4.73 ERA with a 5-7 record in 28 appearances.

Though the Pirates lost Reid Love, Luke Lowery and Hunter Allen, the offensive firepower will still be a threat for ECU. Though the team home run total (38 in 2015) may take a slight dip, Godwin said this team has a chance to make noise in other ways.

“We’ve got a lot more team speed so we’re going to bring a lot more pressure to teams this year,” Godwin said. “One of our goals is to steal 80 bases at an 80 percent success rate and last year, I don’t think we could have done that even if it was one of our goals.”

Godwin pointed specifically to the outfield as a major speed threat, including Garrett Brooks and freshman Dwanya Williams-Sutton as potential base stealers. In the infield, Godwin brought up newcomers Kendal Ford and Brady Lloyd as threats and added last season’s leading base stealer Charlie Yorgen, who swiped eight bags last year.

While most of the lineup looks similar to last season, the shortstop position battle was wide open in camp. Out of the gate, freshman Turner Brown will get the start on Friday, though transfer Wesley Phillips will likely earn a start at some point this weekend.

With five seniors making their final opening day appearance, Godwin said it is something special that they, like him, will never forget.

“The butterflies, the adrenaline, the nervous energy you get as a player,” Godwin said, “I can remember it like it was yesterday for opening day my senior year. I get the butterflies thinking about it. It’s a long season, it’s a marathon not a sprint, but opening day is just special.”