BOCA RATON, FL — East Carolina scored five runs in the fifth inning and withstood a Florida Atlantic comeback for an 8-6 American Athletic Conference series-clinching win on Sunday.
The outcome gave No. 12 ECU (23-7, 6-3 AAC) the series triumph, two games to one.
The Pirates trailed 3-0 in the third inning before a single by Bristol Carter and an error by the Owls allowed Joey Berini to score and trim the lead to 3-1.
ECU tied the score in the fourth as Colby Wallace had a run-scoring single to center and Berini had a sacrifice fly.
Consecutive singles by Dixon Williams, Ryley Johnson and Carter Cunningham gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead in the fifth.
Ryan McCrystal’s single to right scored Cunningham and Justin Wilcoxen had a sacrifice bunt to bring in Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, who had reached on an error. McCrystal scored the last run of the fifth on a single by Carter.
John Schroeder had a 2-run single as FAU (18-11, 5-4 AAC) scored three times in the seventh.
Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman quelled the threat in the seventh and held FAU scoreless the rest of the way for his fourth save. Jake Hunter (2-2) pitched four and one-third innings and yielded one run. He and Lunsford-Shenkman each had four strikeouts.
ECU had a 10-5 lead in hits as Carter was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.’
The Pirates will be home to take on Elon (11-20) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Pirates had a 10-1 road win over the Phoenix on March 19.
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