Pirates drop deciding game to Marshall

From electronic and staff reports
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GREENVILLE  — East Carolina lost the third and deciding game of its Conference USA series with Marshall 5-2 on Sunday at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The Thundering Herd took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning and maintained the advantage to take the opening league matchup two games to one.

The Pirates managed a pair of runs in the seventh off of Marshall starter Matt Margaritonda, who pitched his first complete game and posted 11 strikeouts.

ECU (8-7, 1-2 C-USA) hosts UNC-Greensboro on Tuesday at 5 p.m. The Pirates topped the Spartans in the Gate City 4-3 in 10 innings on March 5.

ECU freshman Davis Kirkpatrick started and went three innings on Sunday. He yielded three hits and three earned runs while walking three with one strikeout.

Marshall designated hitter Chase Vogelbach singled to right field to start the second inning. Matt Reed walked before T.J. Diffenderfer reached on an error to load the bases.

The Herd took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Eric Escobedo. Aaron Bossi was hit by a pitch to reload the bases before Robert Fajardo's RBI single gave the visitors a 2-0 lead.

ECU brought Brett Mabry to the mound in the fourth after walks to Reed and Diffenderfer. The runners moved up 90 feet each on a failed pickoff attempt. Fajardo picked up his second RBI with a two-out sacrifice fly for a 3-0 Marshall lead.

Vogelbach's homer to left pushed the margin to 4-0 in the fifth.

The Pirates committed two of their four errors in the seventh inning and Vogelbach had a sacrifice fly to put Marshall ahead 5-0.

Zach Houchins led off ECU's half of the seventh with a single to left field. A two-out triple by Ben Fultz got the Pirates on the board and a passed ball allowed Fultz to come home with the final run of the game.

Vogelbach was 2-for-3 for Marshall (5-9, 2-1) with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Houchins was 2-for-4 for ECU, which outhit the Herd 7-4.

PAGE UPDATED 03/09/14 11:48 PM.

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