PADUCAH, Ky. — The East Carolina baseball team may have its sights set on Omaha, home of the 2015 College World Series, but another Pirate team is also looking to make waves 600 miles Southeast of Nebraska.

Mirroring the time and work ethic required for a big time Division I program, like the Diamond Bucs, the ECU Club Baseball Team enters the National Club Baseball Association World Series this weekend with aspirations of bringing the trophy back to eastern North Carolina. With an unprecedented 34-2 overall record, a powerful lineup and a deep bullpen, the Pirates, boasting a No. 1 overall NCBA ranking, are the favorites to win the title.

Anchoring that bullpen is junior Brandon Marsh, a junior college transfer, industrial engineering technology major and former Northside Panthers ace that’s bringing the heat late in ballgames.

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work throughout the whole year since August,” said Marsh. “We’ve been working harder than anyone else in the country, so I feel like we deserve it. We have great talent — one through nine — a great bullpen and have a solid team all around. We’re balanced everywhere at every position. Everybody does their job and that’s what kept us so successful this year.”

The 36 games scheduled by head coach Joe Caracci were significantly more than any other team club in the country. Like a Division I program, the club team hits the road on the weekends and usually hosts one midweek game. The grueling schedule is meant to prepare for Paducah, which has been the ultimate goal since Day 1.

The Pirates, a perennial club baseball powerhouse, won the NCBA World Series in 2011, but last season, despite holding a No. 1 ranking, the team lost the first game of the tournament and was later eliminated in the double-elimination bracket.

“They kind of had a chip on their shoulder from losing out last year,” Marsh said. “We came back this year more hungry. We know what we need to do to accomplish our goal.”

Utilized as a closer and set-up man, Marsh has been a consistently reliable back-end-of-the-bullpen arm for Caracci, posting a 3.68 ERA, 10 strikeouts and three saves in 12 appearances this season. Marsh supports a three-man starting rotation, consisting of ace Brandon Taylor, Tanner Duncan and Earl Oliver, that has recorded a combined sub-three ERA.

Top-ranked ECU will look to outlast seven of the country’s best club teams — Texas, Florida State, Arizona State, Penn State, Oregon, Illinois and Iowa State — this week. Marsh will be an integral part in supplying the starters with late-inning relief, saving their arms in what should be a challenging weeklong tournament.

“It would be a total disappointment, but we know we have to earn it,” Marsh said. “The teams here are a lot better than the teams we’ve been playing. Everyone who is here deserves to be here, like us. I think it’s going to be a lot higher talent in this tournament.”

For Northside head coach Keith Boyd, Marsh pieced together a 5-2 record, 1.72 ERA and 56 strikeouts during his senior year in 2012. Marsh credits his coach with helping prepare him for the tough competition at the junior college and club levels.

“(Boyd) really helped push me my four years I was there,” Marsh said. “He always believes in the talent he has there and he definitely helped prepare me, especially for my first year of junior college (2012). He pushed his players to their limit, so I was used to that.”

The NCBA World Series Tournament finishes on May 28 at 7:30 p.m. with the championship game.