GREENVILLE — No. 9 East Carolina pulled away from Old Dominion for a 7-5 win at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Monarchs had topped the Pirates in Norfolk, 6-5, with a walk-off home run by Steven Meier on Feb. 27.
In the second meeting of the season, ECU (25-7) took a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning on an RBI double by Ryan McCrystal with a crowd of 4,148 on hand. The Pirates stayed ahead of ODU (16-16) the rest of the way.
Ethan Norby (2-0) pitched four and two-thirds innings in relief for the win. He allowed three hits, one run (earned) with two walks and 10 strikeouts.
“He was electric,” said Pirates coach Cliff Godwin of the freshman lefty on the ECU radio network. “He only threw 76 pitches. Impressive.”
Jacob Jenkins-Cowart had a 2-run single in the bottom of the first to tie the score at 2 and Wilcoxen’s infield hit provided a 3-2 lead.
Dixon Williams had a run-scoring single to knot the score at 4 in the second. Jenkins-Cowart had an RBI single in the seventh and Wilcoxen’s base hit to right in the eighth brought in a run.
ODU closed the scoring with Kyle Edwards’ solo homer to right in the ninth.
Both teams had 10 hits. Jenkins-Cowart had two hits, three runs and three RBIs. Wilcoxen had two hits and drove in a pair.
Ryley Johnson and Carter Cunningham had doubles and scored runs for ECU.
The Pirates start a 3-game American Athletic Conference series with Charlotte (15-18, 4-5 AAC) in Greenville on Friday at 6 p.m.
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