Short and sweet for the
Pirates
From electronic and staff reports
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
GREENVILLE — Mother Nature and Central
Florida's travel schedule helped East Carolina to a 6-5 Conference USA
baseball win in just six innings at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Saturday.
After Chase McDonald lifted the Pirates to a
2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the first inning, there was a two hour,
54-minute weather delay before Ben Fultz launched a mammoth grand slam to
right field in the second inning that boosted the advantage to 6-0.
Walks to Chris Gosik, Jack Reinheimer and
McDonald preceded the belt by Fultz that descended onto the practice
football field.
There was an agreement that a new inning
wouldn't start after 3 p.m. because of UCF's departure and that helped the
Pirates hold off a UCF comeback.
The Knights managed five runs against ECU
starter Ryan Williams in four innings, all of which were earned. Andy
Smithmyer faced three batters, allowing a hit and walking one, before he was
pulled for Jake Harris (3-3), who was awarded the win. Harris pitched two
innings with two strikeouts. He yielded one hit.
ECU improved to 30-24 overall and 14-10 in the
league with its sixth straight series triumph. UCF, which won the opening
game in Greenville on Thursday before losing a 5-0 lead on Friday, slipped
to 29-27 for the season and 13-11 in C-USA.
The Pirates earned the third seeding for next
week's conference tournament, according to Malcolm Gray, ECU baseball media
contact.
Brian Adkins (4-7), the first of five Knights
pitchers, was saddled with the loss.
Reinheimer had singled off Adkins before
McDonald connected for his blast into "the Jungle" beyond the left field
fence for his 11th round tripper of the season.
A solo homer by Ryan Breen in the third
sparked a three-run inning by the Knights. Bret Gordon collected two RBIs
later in the frame.
Erik Hempe's eighth homer helped UCF cut the
lead to 6-5 in the fifth. Harris came in with the bases loaded. He held the
lead with a pop up and a pair of whiffs.
Fultz was 3-for-3 although the Pirates were
outhit 11-9. Nick Thompson had a pair of hits for ECU.
The C-USA Tournament is scheduled to start
Wednesday in Houston.
PAGE UPDATED
05/18/13 08:20 PM.
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