GREENVILLE — East Carolina defeated La Salle 7-3 in its first home game of the season on Friday before a crowd of 4,003 at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Pirates (2-3) trailed 3-2 before scoring the tying run in the seventh. ECU added four runs in the eighth.
Walks to Charlie Yorgen and Andrew Henrickson started the big inning for the Pirates. T. J. Riles singled to bring home Yorgen with the go-ahead run.
Riles stole second and a walk to Eric Tyler loaded the bases before Henrickson scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Bolka.
The runners moved up on a wild pitch and a balk brought Riles home for a 6-3 ECU lead. Kirk Morgan’s RBI double completed the scoring.
Joe Ingle (1-0) got the win in relief, pitching the seventh and eighth. He didn’t allow a hit or a walk and finished with four strikeouts.
Evan Kruczynski started and went five innings. He yielded nine hits and three earned runs while walking one and striking out seven.
Evan Voliva pitched a scoreless sixth for the Pirates and Matt Bridges struck out a pair of Explorers in a scoreless ninth.
Freshman Spencer Brickhouse was 2-for-4 and scored three runs for ECU. Travis Watkins was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
Brickhouse singled in the second and scored on a double by Watkins. Turner Brown’s ground out allowed Watkins to score after he had stolen third for a 2-0 Pirates lead.
The visitors scored twice in the third and took a 3-2 lead in the fourth.
Bolka and Brickhouse had singles to start ECU in the seventh. Bolka was caught stealing before Brickhouse went to third on a fly by Watkins.
Wesley Phillips singled to score Brickhouse with the tying run.
La Salle dropped to 0-5 despite getting 10 hits and a quality start from Luke Reilly. Jorge Jiminez (0-1) took the loss.
The second game of the three-game series is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.
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