GREENVILLE — Jacob Starling is back.

The player known as “Star,” lived up to his nickname as the leading man in East Carolina’s 10-6 win over No. 21 N.C. State at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Tuesday night.

Starling hit for a cycle as No. 7 ECU (32-8) swept the regular season series with the Wolfpack (22-16), following up on a 12-4 win in Raleigh on April 7.

The senior second baseman returned after missing 13 games with an oblique injury.

Starling had a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the first as the Pirates took an early 2-0 lead.

After the Wolfpack went ahead 4-2 in the third, Starling hit an opposite field homer down the right field line to help ECU tie the score in the bottom of the frame.

His RBI single in the fourth put the Pirates ahead to stay.

Starling had a sacrifice fly in the sixth for his fourth RBI. He finished 4-for-4 with a double in the eighth for the first cycle by a Pirate since Corey Thompson accomplished the feat against Marshall on April 30-,2010 in an 11-4 ECU win in Greenville.

The team theme resonated in postgame remarks after a stadium record crowd of 6,054 witnessed ECU’s fifth straight win..

“Glad to be back and blessed to be part of this team,” Starling said.

“We out-teamed them,” said ECU coach Cliff Godwin.

The Pirates outhit the Pack, 15-10, as Ryley Johnson set a tone at the top of the lineup by going 3-for-4 with a triple and three runs. Carter Cunningham had two hits with a double, an RBI and three runs. Dixon Williams had two hits and two RBIs.

Justin Wilcoxen had a solo homer in the seventh.

Garrett Pennington, former Pirate Alec Makarewicz and Jacob Cozart launched round trippers for the visitors, who re-entered the polls after taking two of three from then-No. 11 North Carolina in Raleigh last weekend.

Freshman lefty Ethan Norby (3-0) had the longest mound tenure of four ECU pitchers with four and one-third innings of relief before Aaron Groller worked the last two innings for his first save.

The Pirates return to American Athletic Conference play for a 3-game series at Memphis (18-23, 6-9 AAC) starting on Friday at 7 p.m.

ECU and Texas San Antonio are presently tied atop the league standings at 11-4. The Roadrunners visit Rice this weekend.