GREENVILLE — East Carolina withstood five runs on two homers by Columbia in the last two innings to defeat the Lions, 8-6, on Sunday and complete a nonconference sweep at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The No. 11 Pirates (14-4) won their seventh straight as Justin Wilcoxen went 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best baseball yet,” said ECU coach Cliff Godwin. “I think that will come at the end of the season. Our goal is to play our best brand of baseball at the end. I didn’t think we were very sharp today at times.”
ECU went ahead to stay on a run-scoring double by Jacob Starling in the bottom of the first.
Luke Nowak had a run-scoring hit in a 3-run third. Wilcoxen drove in a pair on a single up the middle for a 4-0 lead.
The Lions (3-11) got a solo homer from Jack Cooper in the fourth, but the Pirates got the run back in the bottom of the frame when Ryley Johnson hit his second dinger of the season.
Wilcoxen had a 2-run homer in the fifth for a 7-1 lead.
Danny Beal (2-1) got the win in relief of starter Jake Hunter, who went three and two-thirds innings. Beal allowed three hits and no runs with one walk and two strikeouts over two and one-third innings.
Columbia got to the ECU bullpen for a 3-run homer by Miles Blackwell in the eighth and a 2-run blast by Anton Lazits in the ninth.
Carter Cunningham had an RBI single for an insurance run for the Pirates in the eighth.
The Pirates travel to Elon (9-10) on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. start. The Phoenix are coming off a series win over visiting Minnesota.
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