East Carolina Tops Duke 11-5
Connor Norby’s three-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 5-5 tie and ECU went on to pick up an 11-5 win over Duke Tuesday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
The Pirates scored their fourth run of the sixth when an Alec Makarewicz ground out plated Thomas Francisco.
ECU(10-2) pounded out 14 hits with five different players having multi-hit games in the victory.
C.J. Mayhue moved to 1-1 with the win in relief, throwing three scoreless innings allowing one hit with four strikeouts, and one walk.
ECU starter Carter Spivey allowed three earned runs on four hits and a walk with one strikeout in an inning and two thirds of work.
Josh Nifong fell to 1-2 on the year after taking the loss for Duke(6-6).
The Pirates got off to a fast start with four runs in the second inning on six two-out hits from Bryson Worrell, Josh Moylan, Ben Newton, Ryder Giles and Zach Agnos.
Duke then answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second inning in a 4-3 contest.
In the third, Seth Caddell hammered a home run to right-center, his sixth of the year to give the Pirates a 5-3 lead.
Michael Rothenberg’s ground-rule double down the left field line in the fourth tied the game at five. Will Hoyle walked to start the inning and took second on Ethan Murray’s base hit and came around to score on Rothenberg’s extra-base hit.
Then Ryley Johnson’s two-out, two-RBI double in the eighth inning marked his first multi-hit game and scored both Agnos and Francisco to give East Carolina an 11-5 cushion.
Connor Norby’s two hits helped him tie his career-high with four RBI on the day. In doing so, Norby extended his hit streak 19 games dating back to 2020 with a base hit in the second inning, which is tied for seventh longest since the 2000 season.
Thomas Francisco is now owns a 12-game hitting streak, which was extended in the sixth inning.
The Pirates return to action this Friday when they host Charlotte in the first of a three-game weekend series in Clark-LeClair Stadium with a first pitch at 6:30.
