(16)East Carolina picked up a solid 6-1 victory over (11)Duke Tuesday afternoon in Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Thomas Francisco launched a three-run home run and Cam Colmore picked up the win to improve to 2-0 on the season, giving up just one run on four hits in three innings of work for ECU.
Josh Nifong(0-1) absobed the loss for Duke and C.J. Mayhue was credited with the save for the Pirates.
"We got the inning started with the A-Mac walk, Hoover got a big hit that got us on the board. Coach G told me to look for a first pitch change up and luckily he threw that pitch and the ball snuck out,” said Francisco, “I think the big thing is when Spivey went down unexpectedly, Cam and Mayhue came in and just shut the door.”
Cliff Godwin added praise to the efforts of Colmore who came in when Carter Spivey went out with a blister on his finger after less than two innings of work.
“The game was Cam Colmore coming in when Spivey got the blister on his finger,” said Cliff Godwin, “Cam Colmore not even throwing and just going in there and just calming the storm. C.J. Maybe going in there, that’s the best he’s ever pitched. He’s always had a great fastball but tonight he had the slider and the change up. It was just special. That was not the plan but he made us let him finish it.”
"Norby is seeing the ball good. He’s a pretty quiet guy. Really talented. Franciso is one of our leaders. He’s on of the guys who is in the thick of things. He’s like Burley where if you put a shift in, he’ll hit the ball to the left side. He got a chance up and was able to get just enough of it for a three-run jack.”
“Three big RBI’s there after we had scored one to put us up 3-1 on Lane Hoover’s hit and run. I thought we played really good down the stretch from the seventh inning on,” said Godwin, “We talked about it before the game - finishing games to the end and I thought our guys finished tonight.”
Home runs from Seth Caddell’s in the first inning and a Josh Moylan homer in the second fram had ECU up 2-0 early in the contest.
Duke(2-2) got into the act in the top of the third when Michael Rothenberg’s RBI double down the right field line that scored a run to cut the lead to one.
But ECU’s four run seventh inning on a Lane Hoover RBI base hit coupled Francisco’s three-run shot to right that gave the Pirates much needed insurance and pretty much put the Blue Devils away.
ECU(4-0) will next hit the road for a three-game weekend series against Georgia Southern in Statesboro.
