East Carolina’s baseball team looks to take a page out of the book of many of Beaufort County’s baseball and softball teams. The Pirates begin their foray into American Athletic Conference play this weekend when they host Connecticut.

Local high school teams have already played a handful of conference games.

There was plenty of optimism throughout each program. Washington’s baseball and softball teams are both loaded in terms of experience. Both teams have a plethora of pitching talent and the bats to get it done.

Northside is in a similar position. The Panthers have depth on the mound that some 2-A schools would envy. The Lady Panthers have been forced to retool their offense a bit after graduating some big bats, but pitchers Rachel Lang and Rebekah Williams have helped give the defense time to get up to speed.

Southside has what coach Kevin McRoy called his best pitching staff ever. Experience is plentiful as many of last year’s key players returned this season. The Lady Seahawks are shredding through all their competition thanks to the continued development of still-young players like pitcher Alyssa McLawhorn, as well as catcher and dynamite batter Maggie Craig.

Between Washington, Northside and Southside, Beaufort County is 19-5 against league competition. What they’ve each done is turned preseason optimism into the groundwork for a successful season.

Success this spring is, of course, relative to each team. The Lady Pack made program history by making it to the 2-A eastern regional championship series. Two narrow defeats eliminated the girls from the playoffs, but gave them a taste of something they’re surely aiming for this season.

After two or so season of having a young team, the Lady Seahawks have matured and seem poised to make a deep run come the postseason. They don’t have a ton of experience in the playoffs like, for example, Washington, but have shown they have the tools to accomplish something special.

Most others are off to a strong start with some of the strongest squads they’ve had in recent memory. No matter how things unfold over the next two months, most every team in the county has started off on the right foot.

It’s a lot easier to be in this position now than to be making up ground in April and May.