CINCINNATI — East Carolina outhit host Cincinnati, 11-7, on Friday in taking a 9-3 win in the opener of a 3-game American Athletic Conference series.
The Pirates. ranked No. 14 by D1Baseball, improved to 32-14 overall and 10-6 in the AAC. The Bearcats slipped to 20-25 for the season and 8-8 in league play going into game two of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).
ECU went ahead to stay at 4-3 in the top of the fourth on a solo homer to right by Alec Makarewicz.
The Pirates added three runs in the fifth as Luke Nowak had an RBI triple, Justin Wilcoxen had a run-scoring single and Makarewicz lofted a sacrifice fly.
Nowak had two triples, scoring two runs with the first three-bagger in the first. The Pirates added an unearned run in the second.
Wilcoxen had an RBI single in the ninth.
The final run came on a sacrifice bunt by Joey Berini.
Jake Hunter (4-2) got the win with two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief. He allowed two hits with five strikeouts. Danny Beal finished the game with three and one-third scoreless innings and five whiffs.
Zach Root started for ECU and fanned four in three innings as the Pirates totaled 14 strikeouts.
Nowak had three RBIs. Wilcoxen had three hits and two RBIs.
Makarewicz had two hits and two RBIs.
Tommy O’Connor had a 2-run homer for the hosts in the third.
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