Looking to snap back after their ten game win streak was snapped on Friday, (8)East Carolina got off to a fast start and had a solid offensive finish, scoring six runs in the first inning and scoring a pair of runs in the seventh and eighth innings to pick up a 11-8 win over UCF on Saturday in Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Starting pitcher A.J. Jones(3-3) lasted just a third of an inning officially on the mound for UCF and ultimately took the loss before a bevy of Knight pitchers came on including Ben Vespi who lasted the longest, going four innings for the Knights.
“That was a really gutsy win by our players when you get out to 6-0 lead and they cut it to one,” said ECU head coach Cliff Godwin who was ejected in the seventh inning after arguing a strike call with the home plate umpire, “What Cam Colmore, Bridgy and Ryder Giles did offensively, we kept adding. It’s not easy.”
UCF(18-23/8-9 AAC) answered with five runs of their own on Pirate starting pitcher Jake Kuchmaner in the second and third innings to cut the Pirate lead to one at 6-5 and make the game interesting again.
“UCF is not bad, they’re good. They’re very explosive offensively as you’ve seen the first three games,” Godwin stated, “They’ve hurt us when we’ve made mistakes, but Cam Colmore and Matt Bridges were outstanding. Two six-year guys came in and emptied the tank and did what they needed to do for us to have an opportunity to win at the end.”
In the bottom of the sixth, East Carolina(29-6/10-1 AAC) was at it again with a Thomas Francisco home run to right center that extended the lead to 7-5.
Kuchmaner gave up eight hits and five earned runs in three innings of work in his Saturday start. Cam Colmore went another three innings of relief to improve to 3-0 with the victory before Matt Bridges and eventually Ryder Giles came on late.
The Knights answered in the bottom of the sixth with a Jordan Rathbone centerfield home run off of Colmore that trimmed the ECU lead to 7-6.
But ECU would answer with two more runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh to make it 9-6 when Lane Hoover reached on a throwing error by pitcher Hunter Patteson allowing both Thomas Francisco and Connor Norby to score.
Then with runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth, Bryson Worrell doubled to score ECU’s tenth run of the game before a Ryder Giles sacrifice fly allowed Ryley Johnson to score and provided an insurance run to make it 11-6.
In the top of the ninth, the Knights got one run closer when Josh Crouch homered to right off of Ryder Giles in an 11-7 ballgame.
“The good thing about this team is they’ve found ways to win in many different ways,” said Godwin, “You’re going to have to do that, especially in the postseason as is obviously our goal to get to the postseason. You’re going to have to scratch and claw for everything you get and I thought our guys were awesome at that today.”
ECU will go for the series win on Sunday when the Pirates take on UCF in a high noon AAC showdown in Clark-LeClair Stadium.
