GREENVILLE — Wichita State avoided an American Conference sweep at East Carolina on Sunday with a 13-1 win.
The visitors took a 1-0 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Kaleb Duncan and stayed on top the rest of the way.
The Pirates escaped a shutout in the eighth when Davin Whitaker’s 2-out triple to deep right brought in Braden Burress and prevented a run-rule ending.
The Shockers added three runs in the ninth for the final margin as Owen Washburn had a 2-run single and Jayson Jones came in on an infield single by Josh Wulfert.
A 5-run fifth gave Wichita State a 6-0 lead as Jones and Wulfert had 2-RBI singles with another run scoring on a wild pitch.
Jaden Gustafson had a 2-run double in the sixth and Nolan Ganter had a run-scoring single.
Ganter scored on a wild pitch in the eighth.
Ganter and Evan Escobar each had three hits for the Shockers, who had a 12-4 lead in hits.
Wichita State improved to 24-17 overall and 8-7 in league play as starter Amar Tsengeg (2-0) got the win.
Starter Ryan Towers (3-3) was charged with the loss for the Pirates (24-16-1, 9-6 American). Eight ECU pitchers combined to issue 11 walks and hit three batters.
A breeze blowing in from right field affected fly balls.
The Pirates play at Old Dominion (20-19) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Winning a conference series is never a bad thing. However, when you stink up your home field on Tuesday and Sunday, you can’t blame fans for being less than satisfied. At times, the Pirates appear to play without energy, almost like they are always playing the second game of a doubleheader. Pirate batters need to do less chest-tapping, and more hitting. Given the problems of the pitching staff, every at-bat is important for creating enough runs to stay competitive. At this point in the season, teams have usually established their identity. For the Pirates, there’s no telling who will show up one game to the next.