David Pierce on East Carolina baseball crowd: They call themselves 'The Jungle' and they act like it

Ahead of their matchup in the Super Regionals, Texas head coach David Pierce commented on the crowd atmosphere at East Carolina. Pierce explained that the Pirates field has fans extremely close to the players and that he’s experienced unruly behavior before while playing there. East Carolina refers to one of their fan sections as “The Jungle” — something that Pierce says is a fitting nickname.

David Pierce on East Carolina’s fans

“You have an outfield fence that’s five feet, maybe six feet tall that people are hanging over it,” said Pierce. “The bullpens are open, people are hanging over them. So the environment is gonna be even different than anything we’ve been in. I’ve been there many a times, had players had beer thrown on them, had security issues in the bullpen — they really don’t care. They call themselves ‘The Jungle’ and they act like it.”

The Jungle is the nickname for the grassy area out beyond the outfield at Clark-LeClair Stadium — somewhere that is similar to a student section in atmosphere. There are no official seats outside of the stadium where they set up, with tailgaters and fan-brought seats filling the area.

The Longhorns will take on East Carolina on Friday for the first game of their Super Regional series, with Game 2 on Saturday. If the series is tied after that, Game 3 will take place on Sunday with the winner moving on to Omaha for the College World Series.