Long night for Pirates
Bonesville staff report
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Post-game Audio: Godwin, Voliva, Yorgen...
GREENVILLE — East Carolina's
youthful midweek pitching corps was no match for the meat of the North
Carolina order as an eight-run outburst in the second inning served as a
launching pad for a 17-4 Tar Heels win on Tuesday night.
A crowd of 5,213, the third largest
ever at Clark-LeClair Stadium and biggest this season, saw the Pirates
strike first but the excitement of a possible third straight win over
UNC didn't last long.
ECU took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of
the first after leadoff batter Parker Lamm was hit by a pitch from UNC
starter Cole Eaker. Lamm was erased on a steal attempt of second but
Charlie Yorgen and Travis Watkins had one-out singles. Yorgen scored
from third on a grounder to short by Kirk Morgan.
Tyler Lynn homered to left with one
out in the second to tie the score at 1.
The Tar Heels took a 2-1 lead after
Eli Sutherland was hit by a pitch from Pirates starter Evan Voliva.
Brandon Riley had a single to move Sutherland to third. He scored on a
sacrifice bunt by Cody Roberts as Voliva tried unsuccessfuly to get
Sutherland coming home.
Voliva (0-1) lasted an inning and
one-third. He yielded three hits, five runs (all earned) with one walk
and one strikeout.
"I wasn't getting ahead of hitters,"
said the sophomore right-hander. "I was getting behind in counts. It
came back to bite me."
After Voliva walked Brian Miller to
load the bases, ECU brought Davis Kirkpatrick to the mound.
Adam Pate had a three-run double off
Kirkpatrick for a 5-1 Tar Heels lead.
A mammoth three-run homer over the
scoreboard in right-center by Tyler Ramirez pushed the lead to 8-1 and
resulted in a call to the bullpen for freshman Matt Bridges. The
sidearmer prevented further damage on the scoreboard as he stranded
runners at second and third with a ground out.
UNC sent 13 batters to the plate in
the second and collected six hits.
An RBI double by Kyle Datres pushed
UNC's lead to 9-1 in the third and brought Cam Colmore to the mound.
Eaker ran into trouble in the third
after retiring the first two batters. Watkins drew a walk and Morgan
singled. Eric Tyler was hit by a full count pitch.
Watkins scored on a wild pitch before
UNC brought in A.J. Bogucki for an inning-ending strikeout.
Bogucki was replaced by Spencer
Trayner (1-0) after the Pirates scored a pair of runs in the fifth.
Morgan had a single to score Yorgen and Eric Tyler's hit scored Watkins
to draw ECU within 9-4. Trayner stranded two runners with a strikeout
and a ground out.
Lamm tried to score from third on a
pitch that caromed off the backstop and back to Tar Heel catcher Cody
Roberts for a tag out in the fifth. The Pirates couldn't get a bounce in
their own park.
The matchup kept going for three
hours and 45 minutes with 13 pitchers, 21 runs and 30 hits. It was a
long night for the Pirates in another sense.
"Personally, I'm embarrassed," said
Yorgen, who was 3-for-5 with two runs scored. "You come to East Carolina
to win baseball games and play in front of 5,000-plus. We didn't play
our best baseball so we need to get back on track. ... We can definitely
bounce back and be learners from it."
Yorgen was part of ECU teams that
beat the Tar Heels twice when the programs last met in 2014. What was
the difference this time around?
"The momentum, I guess," said the
junior infielder. "We'd fight and try to get the momentum in our dugout.
But we'd walk a guy or they would get a big extra-base hit. We were
constantly trying to get momentum and we just couldn't. They were
relentless. Credit to them. They put up an eight spot and they just kept
tacking on."
UNC (13-2) added four runs in the
sixth and four more in the eighth.
"I'm not going to take any credit
away from their offense but every hitter was hitting in an advantage
count," said ECU coach Cliff Godwin.
Although the Pirates were only outhit
16-14, the visitors were more powerful and productive. ECU left 13 on
base.
"We have to have short term memory
loss, forget about it and bounce back (Wednesday) at practice," Yorgen
said.
Godwin used eight pitchers, five of
them freshmen. Junior college transfer Zack Mozingo made his first
appearance on the mound for ECU.
The Pirates issued eight walks.
Kirkpatrick is a redshirt sophomore
working his way back from Tommy John surgery that kept him sidelined
last year.
"The second inning got out of
control," Godwin said. " ... Thanks to the fans for coming out — and
we'll get better."
ECU must regroup for a three-game
series at home against Monmouth that starts on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
PAGE UPDATED
03/16/16 03:02 PM.
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