DURHAM — The power of freshman center fielder Grady Lanahan and the pitching of sophomore right-hander Sean Jenkins were vital as East Carolina evened its series with No. 10 North Carolina on Saturday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park with a 10-3 triumph.
Lanahan hit a 3-run homer over the Blue Monster in left field in the top of the seventh for a 6-3 Pirates lead. Lanahan drilled a bases-loaded triple off the left-center wall in the eighth and scored on a single by Jack Herring for the final margin.
Jenkins (1-0) worked the last four and two-thirds innings for ECU. He allowed just one hit and no runs with no walks and seven strikeouts.
West Virginia transfer Gavin Van Kempen started on the mound for the Pirates. He went four and one-third innings. The senior right-hander yielded three hits with three runs (all earned). He walked two and fanned five.
ECU (3-4) took a 1-0 lead in the first as Herring singled to bring in Lanahan. Two runs scored in the second on a sacrifice bunt by Matthew Lashley as Colby Wallace hustled home from second base.
The Tar Heels (6-1) tied the score in the third on a 3-run homer by Gavin Gallaher.
Walker McDuffie (1-1) was charged with the loss.
ECU outhit the Tar Heels, 15-4, before a crowd of 6,397.
Lanahan was 3-for-5 with three runs and six RBIs. Herring was 4-for-5 with two RBIs. Braden Burress went 2-for-4 and scored twice.
UNC posted a 10-0 win in eight innings over the host Pirates on Friday.
ECU coach Cliff Godwin was pleased with his club’s resiliency.
“Super proud of our guys,” said Godwin on the Pirate radio network. “They showed up and fought.”
The deciding game of the series is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill (ACC Network).
What a difference 18 hours made. The Pirates put the run-rule loss on their home field behind them, playing dominant baseball today in Durham. Whatever happens tomorrow, the Pirates now know they can get it done against a quality opponent. Everything that went wrong last night, for the most part, was corrected. With the exception of one mistake by Van Kempen, he and Sean Jenkins pitched lights out against UNC. The Pirate bats were active from the start, and kept pressure on the ‘Heels pitching all day. 10 runs speak for themselves. Tomorrow will be very telling as both teams have experienced the exhilaration of a dominant win, and the anxiety of a drubbing.