WICHITA —Wichita State didn’t score after the second inning on Friday night but an early 5-0 advantage was sufficient for a 5-4 win over East Carolina in the opening game of an American Athletic Conference series.
The Pirates (26-20. 10-9 AAC) scored four runs in the seventh and will look to even the 3-game set on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Shockers (14-30, 6-13 AAC) lived up to their name — not their record —and took a 13-12 series lead against ECU, including a 7-4 mark at home.
Ethan Norby had been named as the starter in an email Wednesday from Pirate sports media relations, but Brad Pruett (3-5) went to the mound initially instead.
The Oklahoma transfer yielded five earned runs in one and two-thirds innings with three hits and four walks. Ethan Young allowed no runs over five and one-third frames before Jake Hunter tossed a scoreless eighth.
Josh Livingston had an RBI single for a 1-0 Wichita State lead in the first.
The big blow in a 4-run second for the hosts was a 2-run double by Jordan Rogers.
Roger Vergara’s single to left brought in two runs for the Pirates in the seventh. Alex Bouche had a run-scoring double and Braden Burress had a line out to right for a sacrifice fly.
Ryley Johnson ended the inning with a third strike on a bunt attempt with the potential tying run at third.
ECU had an 8-5 lead in hits as Bouche went 2-for-4 with a double.
Grant Adler (4-5) got the win and Nick Potter pitched the ninth for his third save.
This scenario has become too painful to watch. BP’s sudden inability to throw strikes during an outing is the norm, not the exception. And, he’s not the only one. Unless it’s Young or Hunter, you never know what you’ll get from the bullpen. Losing Norby to illness left the Pirates without any real starters, given the season-long injuries to the preseason projected starters. Even Norby got pushed into his Friday starter role as a result of those injuries. More worrisome, BP’s inexcusably late effort to cover first base indicates he was “checked out” mentally. I haven’t seen that happen to the Pirates this year, regardless of the other problems.
Combine the pitching woes with periodic weakness at the plate as exhibited by the Pirates through the season thus far, and the resulting mediocre, 26-20 record is not surprising. It took the Pirates seven innings to score against Wichita, not known to have a strong pitching staff. The Pirates couldn’t produce enough offense to overcome the early deficit.
This could be a very ugly series for the Pirates if the poor pitching starts continue, and the offense continues to sputter.
Honestly, losing to lowly WSU even once already makes it an ugly series.
Early on, I believed that the Pirates would develop this season into a better ballclub, but that hasn’t happened. Probably it’s largely due to the injuries you mentioned, but by and large they’ve been noncompetitive at the plate too. A couple of seasons back, they also had pitching injuries, but formidable hitting then allowed CG to cobble together enough pitching to pretty much keep them in the rankings .
Even the fielding this year is not what it has historically been. Barring a quick and radical turnaround, given who remains on the schedule, the home stretch for the Pirates could get very ugly.
You are correct Jerry. The only thing consistent here is Cliff Godwin. He is very good fundamentals coach, game coach, not so much. We have had 11 years of not going to the CWS, when that was the focus when Godwin in. 11 years of the same thing, sometimes close, but never the bride!! I feel it’s time to move on. If Godwin could not see what he had for this season, then he needs to go. After all, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of stupidity. If you look at it from the financial standpoint, he has cost ECU lots of money.