CLEARWATER, FL — East Carolina endured delays for rain and a power outage at BayCare Ballpark for a 9-6 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday in an elimination game in the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
The No. 15 Pirates (42-16) will meet the loser between Central Florida and South Florida on Friday at 1 p.m. in another elimination game. The Knights and Bulls play on Thursday at 1 p.m.
ECU returned from a rain delay of approximately four hours in the bottom of the fourth inning on the short end of a 6-5 score.
The Pirates got the tying run on a bases-loaded walk to Jacob Jenkins-Cowart in the sixth.
Jacob Starling had a 2-run double in the seventh for an 8-6 ECU lead.
A wild pitch allowed Carter Cunningham to come home in the eighth.’
Pirate pitchers Zach Root, Landon Ginn, Danny Beal, Carter Spivey (7-2) and Trey Yesavage combined for 16 strikeouts. Yesavage fanned the side in the ninth for his first save.
All of the run production for Cincinnati (24-33) came via the long ball on a 2-run homer by Kerrington Cross in the third and a grand slam by Cole Harting in the fourth.
Starling and Jenkins-Cowart each drove in a pair of runs for the Pirates, who had an 8-7 lead in hits. Cunningham scored three runs.
…a good bounce-back win for the Pirates. Yesavage’s slamming of the door on Cinnci in the 9th with blistering heat when they were showing dangerous signs of life was especially impressive, and it’s nice to send them out of the AAC with a 7 – 0 trouncing on the season. (Too bad football couldn’t have done the same, and may well have but for the thug hit on Keaton Mitchell in the latter part of that game.)