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You are here: Home / News & Features / Bolka’s blast not enough

BaseballBolka’s blast not enough

April 30, 2017 By Bonesville Staff Leave a Comment

ECU sophomore pitcher Chris Holba leads the dugout support for the Pirates in the eight inning of their American Athletic Conference game with Tulane on Saturday at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Holba is recovering from an injury sustained in the Houston series. (Photo by Bonesville Staff)

GREENVILLE — Luke Bolka hit a two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the ninth to draw East Carolina within a run but Tulane held on for a 5-4 American Athletic Conference win to even the series with the Pirates on Saturday.

The deciding matchup of the three-game set is at 3:30 p.m. today. The game was changed from the originally-scheduled time of 11:30 a.m. to accommodate CBS Sports Network, which will televise the game nationally.

The Green Wave (22-22, 9-5 AAC) took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Hunter Williams hit a two-run homer down the left field line and Jarret DeHart followed with a solo shot to right.

Story continues after the following picture…

East Carolina head coach Cliff Godwin looks on as catcher Travis Watkins takes a lead from third in the ninth inning. (Photo by Bonesville Staff)

ECU (23-21, 3-11) got a run back with two down in the second as Dwanya Williams-Sutton was hit by a pitch and Drew Henrickson walked before Bryce Harman had an RBI single to right.

Lex Kaplan singled to score a run for the Wave in the seventh and the lead grew to 5-1 in the ninth on Grant Witherspoon’s run-scoring single.

Travis Watkins led off the Pirates’ half of the ninth with a single to left. A Wave error allowed Williams-Sutton to reach base and Watkins advanced to third. ECU pulled within 5-2 on a sacrifice fly by Wesley Phillips. Bolka, pinch hitting for Harman, cut the lead to 5-4 on a 2-0 count.

Story continues after the following picture…

ECU senior Luke Bolka follows through on a pinch-hit, two-run ‘Bolka Bomb’ deep to left field in the bottom of the ninth inning. (Photo by Bonesville Staff)

Christian Colletti struck out the next two batters for his seventh save.

Pirates starter Trey Benton (3-3) took the loss. J.P. France (4-3) started and got the win for Tulane.

Eric Tyler and Watkins each had two hits for the Pirates.

Kaplan finished 3-for-3 for the visitors and Witherspoon was 2-for-5 with a triple.

POSTGAME AUDIO: CLIFF GODWIN, ERIC TYLER, BRYCE HARMAN…

VIEW ECU’S 2017 BASEBALL SCHEDULE

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