BOCA RATON, FL — East Carolina earned a share of the American Conference regular season championship with a 13-2 win in seven innings at Florida Atlantic and Alabama-Birmingham’s 23-11 victory in eight innings at Texas-San Antonio on Saturday.
The Pirates and Roadrunners finished tied atop the standings with 17-10 league records. UTSA will be the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament by virtue of a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head series March 27-29 with ECU in San Antonio.
As the No. 2 seed for the American event in Clearwater, FL, the Pirates receive a double bye and will be in action Friday at 9 a.m. against an opponent to be determined by the progression through the brackets.
Going back to the run to the league tournament championship last year, ECU has won seven straight in the Sunshine State.
Left-hander Luke Payne (3-1) provided a solid start Saturday, going five innings. He allowed three hits and one run (earned) with no walks and six strikeouts.
“Everything was working today,” said Payne, a Tennessee transfer, on the Pirate radio network. “The change-up was good. They couldn’t seem to get their timing on it.”
Brett Antolick pitched the sixth inning. He yielded one hit with an unearned run, one walk and one whiff.
Thomas Paxton came in for the seventh. He didn’t allow a hit, run or walk while fanning one.
The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a double by Colby Wallace that scored Grady Lanahan and a run-scoring single by Davin Whitaker that brought in Wallace.
“When we scored in the first, in my mind, that was all we needed,” Payne said.
Lanahan set the tone by leading off the game with a single to right and stealing second. Lanahan went 4-for-5 with a double, two runs and two RBIs.
“We had synergy all weekend.” Lanahan said. “Guys came out ready to win.”
Lanahan had an RBI single in the second for a 3-0 lead.
The Pirates took control with five runs in the third. Wallace scored from second on a throwing error on an infield single by Davin Whitaker. Michael Kalinich had a double to score Whitaker.
Austin Irby’s single through the right side brought in Kalinich for a 6-0 advantage. Lanahan had a ground rule double to plate Irby. A bases-loaded walk to Braden Burress extended the lead to 8-0.
Kalinich hit a 2-run homer to center in the fourth.
The Owls (28-27, 12-15 American) got on the board in the fifth when Brett Patten scored on a ground out by Eli Small.
Whiatker homered to right in the sixth to give the Pirates an 11-1 lead. The hosts got an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth.
Burress had a run-scoring triple in the seventh and scored on a ground out by Wallace as ECU surpassed the run-rule margin.
Starter Dalton Robinson (2-4) was saddled with the loss.
The Pirates (33-21-1) outhit the Owls, 15-4.
Whitaker was 4-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs. Wallace and Kalinich each had two hits.
“The guys came ready to play,” said ECU coach Cliff Godwin. “Payne was awesome. The guys never let up. We were motivated to control our destiny and the guys did that.”
A loss Saturday by the Pirates would have resulted in ECU becoming the third seed and missing the double bye with Rice (16-11 American) moving up to No. 2 based on head-to-head results.
This is a good time for ECU to gel, on both sides of the ball. They’re arguably the team to beat in Clearwater, and I’m confident will play like it, but I would think that even only another win or two at this point would get them over the hump for an at large bid in the national tournament.
I don’t know if the Pirates are the team to beat, but you have to give them credit for for turning on the offense at the right time, and not turning it off until the Owls were done. Towers, Norby, and Payne all made quality starts, and the relief pitching was fairly solid. If the offense can keep clicking, that might take some of the pressure off of a pretty lean pitching staff. You might be right Irish, maybe this team is gelling at the best of all times. Let’s hope they can keep it up for a few more weeks.