ECU Beats Tulane 8-2 For Their Eighth Straight Victory
ECU picked up their eighth straight win and the second of the weekend with a 8-2 win over Tulane Saturday afternoon in Greenville.
Bryant Packard and Seth Caddell both went three for four from the plate to lead an 11 hit Pirate offensive attack.
Jake Kuchmaner(4-1) lasted eight and a third innings with six strikeouts and giving up six hits to pick up the win for ECU(33-10/13-1). Keagan Gillies got the loss for the Green Wave to dip to 2-2 on the season.
With Kuchmaner’s pitch count at 110 pitches and Cliff Godwin felt is was best to get him out of there
“I wanted it real bad. As a pitcher you always want it,” said Kuchmaner, “You go out in the ninth and expect to finish it. My pitch count was up and I kind of gave the ball over to Sam (Lanier) so it was good.”
The Pirates picked up where they left off on Friday night with a pair of runs in the first inning. Alec Burleson ripped a base hit up the middle that scored Bryant Packard from second base. That was followed by a double down the right field line from Turner Brown to score another run.
“We’ve done a good job up to this point but it could all go away..that fast,” said Godwin, “So we just need to continue to focus on us and be ready to go because the only easy day was yesterday. When we get here tomorrow we need to be ready to rock and roll and I’m sure they’ll be doing everything they can to just scratch out a win.”
(11)ECU added three more runs in the second inning largely on a pair of hits from Ryder Giles and Lane Hoover along with a Spencer Brickhouse RBI that allowed Bryant Packard to score to give ECU a 5-0 lead.
Catcher Seth Caddell talked about the importance of picking up an early lead on a team like Tulane that can be explosive.
“It’s very important really with their offense. You have to get ahead because they’ve got some very good hitters in that lineup,” said Caddell, “Just like with Kooch today, getting ahead early today with some strikes is a big part of beating that team right there.”
With the bases loaded and two outs in the third, Bryant Packard was plunked in the back side by relief pitcher Justin Campbell to score another run for a 6-0 cushion.
Tulane(26-16/8-5 AAC) finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth when a Frankie Niemann grounder into a double-play allowed Kody Hoese to score from third base to trim the lead to 6-1.
The Pirates added a pair of insurance runs on two pop fly RBI’s from Lane Hoover and Spencer Brickhouse before Tulane added one run in the ninth on an Jonathon Artigues base hit that allowed Tyler Heninrichs to cross home plate to complete the scoring on the day.
PI POSTGAME: CLIFF GODWIN GAME TWO COMMENTS
