Pirates fend off 7th-ranked Rice

From electronic and staff reports
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East Carolina sophomore righthander Drew Reynolds enticed Derek Hamilton into a ground ball that produced a 6-4-3 double play, terminating a 9th-inning Rice rally and cementing a 4-3 Conference USA victory for the Pirates on Sunday at Reckling Park.

Reynolds, who carried out double duty as designated hitter, faced only three batters in preserving a league-leading seventh win of the season for ECU starter Jharel Cotton (7-0). A junior righthander, Cotton struck out five and parceled out two runs on nine hits with no walks before giving way after 6 1/3 innings.

The Pirates led 4-1 when junior southpaw Jake Harris came on for Cotton in the 7th with runners on first and second. Owls junior second baseman Christian Stringer, who was 4-for-5 on the day, laced a single through the right side, driving in Michael Ratterree from second and ending Harris's quick stint on the mound. Ratterree had reached on an infield hit and advanced on a single up the middle by Michael Fuda.

Freshman righthander Jeff Hoffman relieved Harris and the uprising was promptly extinguished as Stringer was cut down at second on an attempted steal and pinch hitter Chase McDowell went down swinging.

Hoffman kept the Owls at bay until the 9th when he gave up a leadoff double to pinch hitter Keenan Cook and issued a walk to Ratterree. That set the stage for Reynolds to nail down his conference-leading eighth save of the season, but not before Rice threatened to swing the outcome in its favor.

Hoffman caught Fuda looking on a 1-2 pitch for the second out before Stringer turned up the pressure with an infield single that scored Cook, closing the East Carolina advantage to 4-3. Hamilton then stroked a grounder to sophomore shortstop Jack Reinheimer who initiated the game-ending double play.

The No. 7 Owls jumped on the scoreboard in the 1st inning when Stringer led off with a single, raced to third on a single to right field by designated hitter J.T. Chargois and scored on a single Craig Manuel.

The 24th-ranked Pirates came up with three runs off Rice starter Andrew Benak in the 4th. Senior third baseman Corey Thompson walked and junior leftfielder/first baseman John Wooten singled to start the inning. Senior catcher Zach Wright followed with a single to right and ended up on second as a Rice throwing error allowed Thompson to score and Wooten to take third.

Wooten came in and Wright moved to third on a groundout by junior outfielder Philip Clark. Wright then dashed home on a sacrifice fly to center by Reinheimer.

East Carolina added a run in the 5th on singles by Younger, Reynolds and Wooten, chasing Benak (5-2) with two outs in the inning. Rice relievers John Simms, Taylor Wall and Tyler Duffey shut down ECU from that point on, combining for 4 1/3 innings of no-hit ball.

The Pirates managed to hang on despite being outhit by the Owls 12-8. Wooten, at 2-for-4, was ECU's only player with multiple hits. In addition to Stringer's four-hit performance, Chargois, Manuel and Fuda had two hits apiece for Rice.

With the triumph, East Carolina avoided a sweep in the the closely-contested three-game series and stayed in the thick of the C-USA regular season race. The Pirates (27-13-1, 9-5-1 C-USA) are in sole possession of third place, while the second-place Owls (30-12, 11-4) trail leader Central Florida (34-8, 12-3) by a game.

Rice survived a sterling pitchers duel pitting its stellar righthander, Matthew Reckling, against ECU's ace leftie, Kevin Brandt, on Friday. The Owls prevailed on a walk-off 10th-inning home run by Manuel on Saturday.

The Pirates will bus to Chapel Hill on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. matchup with North Carolina before turning their focus back to conference action in a weekend series at home against Tulane starting on Friday.

PAGE UPDATED 04/23/12 04:58 AM.

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