GREENVILLE — Cliff Godwin won his 318th game at East Carolina on Friday night at Clark-LeClair Stadium to move ahead of his predecessor, Billy Godwin, for second place on the coaching career victories list at ECU as the Pirates topped Missouri State, 3-0.
Gary Overton holds the record with 427 wins from 1985 to 1997.
Trey Yesavage (3-0) provided a quality start as the Pirates, ranked tenth nationally by D1Baseball, improved to 14-4 with their eighth triumph in their last nine games.
Yesavage went seven and one-third innings, allowing four hits with 11 strikeouts and no walks.
Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman pitched the last one and two-thirds for his second save. Shenkman didn’t yield a hit while fanning three without a walk.
“Yesavage was outstanding,” said Cliff Godwin on the Pirate radio network. “Shenkman was outstanding. We needed them to be outstanding because their pitching staff, especially their starter (Brandt Thompson, 2-2), gave us fits.”
ECU got the only run it would need after a one-out double by Jacob Jenkins-Cowart in the fourth. Jenkins-Cowart moved to third when Justin Wilcoxen hit into a fielder’s choice. Jenkins-Cowart scored on an infield single by Joey Berini.
Wilcoxen hit a 2-run homer to center in the eighth after a single by pinch hitter Carter Cunningham.
The shutout was the first of the season for the Pirates and the first time the visitors had been blanked since May 2, 2021.
ECU is expected to send right-hander Carter Spivey (1-1) to the mound for the second contest in the 3-game series with the Bears (11-6) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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