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Pirates head into AAC Tournament

By Al Myatt
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East Carolina goes into the American Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fl, with a three-game winning streak despite a scare in the bottom of the ninth inning of an 8-7 squeaker at Central Florida on Saturday.

The Pirates had an 8-1 lead with the Knights down to their last three outs.

Eli Putnam led off UCF's half of the ninth with a home run off Joe Ingle to set the tone for the comeback.

Two outs and five runs later, Ingle was faced with a bases-loaded situation and a 2-2 count on Sam Tolleson.

Ingle got Tolleson, a senior hoping to be a hero on UCF's Senior Day, for a swinging strikeout to end the game. It was the 55th pitch of the inning for ECU's sophomore right-hander, who has 20 career saves.

Despite his struggles, East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin and Pirates pitching coach Dan Roszel stuck with Ingle.

"What we were thinking is he's our guy," Godwin said. "If we're going to lose, we're going to lose with our guy on the mound. You know what? It worked out well for us because at the end of the day, he's our closer. It wasn't a close situation but it became a close situation. He made the pitch when he had to."

Pirates perform in clutch situation

All three of the games at UCF were important for ECU in terms of having a chance for the AAC regular season championship, depending on how Tulane fared at Houston.

The Green Wave (37-17, 15-7 AAC) won two of three from the Cougars to hold off the Pirates (34-19-1, 15-8-1) for the regular season AAC title.

"We played well this weekend," Godwin said. "UCF has got some good weekend pitching, especially the first two guys. (Cre) Finfrock is not himself right now so Saturday was a little bit different but their first two guys have pitched really well in conference. For our guys to be able to have tough at-bats and scratch runs and do all those things was great. (Evan) Kruczynski and Jimmy Boyd were phenomenal."

Wolfe struggles

Jacob Wolfe has lacked his usual effectiveness in his last two starts. Wolfe went three and one-third innings Saturday, his shortest stint of the season.

"That's just the last two outings," Godwin said. "At UConn, he's the conference pitcher of the week. He's just hit a little rough spot. We'll work with him. He'll get better. He'll get back to form for the tournament."

Kruczynski will start ECU's opener against South Florida (23-31, 8-16) in the league tournament at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

"Kruczynski is going to go day one and then we're going to go day by day," Godwin said.

Bulls played better

The Bulls topped ECU two out of three in Greenville on May 13-15.

"I don't think we took them lightly in Greenville," Godwin said. "They just played better than us. We'll be ready. It's the postseason. Our guys are excited. They're ready to go. It's postseason play and every game matters. We'll go from there."

Pre-tournament activities

There was a banquet Monday night for the teams, followed by a coaches meeting. Conference awards were announced Monday. Kruczynski and freshman Dwanya Williams-Sutton were first team all-conference selections for the Pirates. ECU catcher Travis Watkins made the second team in voting by the league coaches.

The Pirates practiced Monday morning.

"A light practice and the guys had some down time later on," Godwin said.

ECU was scheduled for a brief workout at Bright House Field on Tuesday.

"You get 15 minutes to take infield and outfield but you can't take batting practice on the game field," Godwin said.

The Pirates utilized an auxiliary field for batting practice Monday and Tuesday.

ECU in good place

A sweep of the three-game series at UCF has the Pirates in a good frame of mind. ECU won the AAC Tournament in 2015 at the same locale.

"I don't know how we could be in a better place," Godwin said. "We won three in a row on the road. I know there's a lot of good memories from last year. Half our team won a conference tournament championship, which doesn't mean a ton but it does mean something.

"Last year, our hotel was new. Just the landscape of everything as far as getting to the field, taking BP. All that stuff was new to everybody, including myself. This year, we know what to expect. That doesn't allow you to win more games but it allows you to feel more comfortable going through it."

Another morning start

The Pirates also got tuned in to starting games at 11 a.m. at UCF. All three games with the Knights were moved up due to the threat of rain later in the day. ECU still had some rain delays to deal with in Orlando.

Early to rise has become a way of life for the Pirates on game day.

"I guess we can thank the weather for getting us ready for 11 a.m. games," Godwin said. "I think our first game in the tournament last year was at 11 a.m. as well."

Williams-Sutton has progressed rapidly

Williams-Sutton led the AAC in hitting this season with a .372 average.

"Dwanya has been phenomenal," Godwin said. "I don't know if any of us could have thought back in the fall, going through fall practice, he would have this kind of year but he's matured a whole lot. I mean he shows up to play every single day. In the fall, he was learning how to do that. He's learned how to play through some bumps and bruises when his body's not feeling 100 percent. That was probably his biggest challenge in the fall ... just because he had never had to do that before.

"He's very quiet, very humble, probably too humble at times. He doesn't know how good he can be but our guys have a lot of confidence in him and he's fun to watch the way he's been playing, especially the past few weeks."

Williams-Sutton went 4-for-4 on Saturday at UCF with a home run and a double, scoring twice.

E-mail Al Myatt

PAGE UPDATED 05/25/16 02:04 AM.

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