SAN ANTONIO — East Carolina evened its American Athletic Conference series at Texas-San Antonio with a 14-10 win on Saturday to set up a deciding game on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The No. 10 Pirates improved to 16-5 with six runs in a seventh inning that included a 2-run triple from Ryan McCrystal.
ECU took a 3-1 lead in the third with RBI singles from Ryley Johnson and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart plus a sacrifice fly by Jacob Starling.
The Pirates faced a 4-3 deficit before scoring three runs in the sixth to take the lead for keeps. Walker Barron’s RBI single to center tied the score and two runs came in on a single by Joey Berini with the help of an error by the Roadrunners (11-12).
Bristol Carter had an RBI single for a 9-4 lead after McCrystal’s triple in the seventh. Luke Nowak connected for a run-scoring double. A sacrifice fly by Berini and a single by Johnson that brought in Nowak extended the lead to 12-4.
The hosts pulled within 12-10 on a grand slam by Tye Odom in a 6-run eighth.
Sacrifice flies by Nowak and Carter Cunningham in the ninth accounted for the final margin.
Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman (2-1) got the win in relief of starter Zach Root, who struck out eight in four and one-third innings. Danny Beal pitched the last one and two-thirds innings for his third save.
Each team had 16 hits as Carter went 3-for-4. Collecting two hits each for ECU were Johnson, Cunningham, McCrystal, Colby Wallace and Barron.
Johnson left the game after stealing second in the seventh, apparently with an injury.
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