GREENVILLE — Dixon Williams homered in each game as East Carolina opened the season with a doubleheader split with George Mason at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Friday.

The deciding game of the series is scheduled for Saturday at noon.

The Patriots won the first game Friday, 7-3, with a 5-run sixth inning that included a solo home run by Jake Butler and a 3-run shot by Drew Canody.

A 3-run homer to center by Williams in the seventh inning was the deciding blow in a 4-3 ECU victory in the second game.

Jackson DiLorenzo pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief for the win in the second game. Freshman right-hander Ian White Jr. went two-thirds of an inning for the save.

Freshman Bradley Zayac started the second game for ECU and went three and one-third innings. He yielded just one hit but was charged with two runs, both earned, while striking out one and walking two.

Oklahoma transfer Brad Pruett followed Zayac to the mound and struck out nine in three and one-third innings.

Colby Wallace came in to pitch in the top of the eighth inning with one out and the bases loaded but got out of the jam without a run scoring as he recorded a strikeout and a ground out.

Wallace homered in the bottom of the third in the second game for a 1-0 Pirates lead.

The Patriots brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate in the top of the ninth before White notched a game-ending whiff.

The Pirates tied the score at 1 in the third inning of the first game on a bases-loaded walk to Austin Irby. Williams launched a 2-run blast to left in the eighth.

Pirate starter Ethan Norby absorbed the loss in the first game, allowing three of George Mason’s five runs in the sixth. He had six strikeouts in five and one-third innings.

“We played a little tight in the first game,” said ECU coach Cliff Godwin on the ECU radio network after his 398th career win.