NORFOLK — East Carolina completed a season sweep of Old Dominion with a 19-9 win in seven innings at the Elmer Family Baseball Complex on Tuesday night.
The Pirates topped the Monarchs, 11-0, in seven innings in Greenville on March 10.
ECU (25-16-1) scored eight runs in the fourth, seven in the fifth and four in the sixth.
“Great to get back on the winning side of things,” said winning coach Cliff Godwin on the Pirate radio network. “We did a lot of good things offensively.”
ECU was coming off a 13-1 loss at home to Wichita State on Sunday.
Efrain Morales gave ODU (20-20) a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a solo homer off starter Nick Moran.
Jack Herring had a pair of RBI singles as the Pirates batted around in the fourth. ECU also got run-scoring singles from Jeff Sabater, Michael Kalinich, Austin Irby and Braden Burress in the 8-run frame.
Maverick Stallings had a 2-run homer for ODU in the fourth to reduce the margin to 8-3.
Davin Whitaker got the scoring started in the fifth with a 2-run single to left. Colby Wallace drew a bases-loaded walk. Sabater brought in a run with an infield single and Kalinich drove in a pair with a single up the middle.
Alex Bouche had an RBI single for a 15-3 Pirates advantage.
Collecting RBIs for ECU in the sixth were Herring, Sabater, Kalinich and Bouche.
Cash Jay had a homer for the hosts in the seventh.
Colby Wallace came to the mound from third base in the seventh to close out the contest with the bases loaded.
“Glad to see C-Wall get us on the bus,” Godwin said.
Luke Payne (2-1) was credited with the win. Jack Maddox (0-1) took the loss.
The Pirates had 18 hits and one error while the Monarchs had 10 hits with four errors, which led to five unearned runs.
Sabater had three hits and three RBIs in the win. Irby had three hits, Getting two hits each were Burress, Whitaker, Herring, Wallace, Kalinich and Bouche.
ECU starts a 3-game American Conference series with South Florida (28-12, 7-8 American) in Greenville on Friday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+). The Pirates are 9-6 in league play, one game behind Texas-San Antonio and Alabama-Birmingham.
The Blazers won, 11-2, at No. 13 Alabama on Tuesday night.
Understanding that your pitching might be sketchy, I expected the Pirate offense to start fast. That didn’t happen. But, thanks to a lot of Monarch help, and Pirate bats finally coming alive, ECU was able to run-rule ODU for the second time this year. Honestly, this year ODU isn’t that competitive, but the Pirates needed a game where the bats definitely carried the day. 18 hits speak for themselves. Pirate batters took what ODU pitchers gave them, and slapped single after single through the infield, with C-Wall’s double being the only extra base hit. The hit batsmen and walks, combined with all of the Pirate hits spelled disaster for ODU.
On the flip side, ECU had its own pitching woes. This win was ugly. It’s never good when you HAVE TO bring your third baseman in to pitch in order to complete a run-rule victory. Sean Jenkins and Ethan Rose did provide some quality outs. Nick Moran’s brief appearance gives hope that he can come back to a routine pitching schedule. Otherwise, the Pirate bullpen continues to be a mess.
Going forward, let’s hope Pirate batters keep hitting the singles and not trying to hit kill shots at every at bat. If the Pirates can find another arm in the bullpen to provide a couple of innings of solid work twice a week, the remainder of the season could be very interesting.