ECU Picks Up a 13-8 Win Over UCF
(14)ECU made the most of thirteen hits and then held off feisty UCF 13-8 in game one of a three-game AAC series Friday night in Greenville.
Dusty Baker picked up his first career home run in the eighth inning, Spencer Brickhouse knocked in four runs and Lane Hoover added three RBI to lead the ECU at the plate.
Cliff Godwin talked about scoring runs early against a quality starter like Chris Williams who only ended up lasting three innings and then shutting UCF(15-7/0-1 AAC) down at the plate to pick up the victory.
“That was huge. Dusty Baker’s home run and then Packard’s walk and Brickhouse’s triple was huge to put us up by five,” said Godwin, “They’re really good offensively and when we made mistakes at the plate or on the mound, they made us pay for it.”
“It was really good for our offense to have a really good approach against a really good arm. That guy is a fifth year senior, he’s been in the league, he’s tough and I thought we put together a lot of quality at bats the first three innings.”
ECU(16-6/1-0 AAC) scored ten runs in the first three innings alone and eight of their Friday night runs came with two outs in the inning. Hoover talked about what that did for his ballclub.
“It’s big. We’ve all got confidence in each other so it was good to get a lot of runs with two outs. The early runs gave us a lot of momentum. We just try to win one pitch at a time and we just barreled up a lot of balls tonight which is good,” said Hoover, “We’ve got to push that over into tomorrow.”
Alec Burleson came on in the seventh inning in relief to pitch a pair of innings and improve to 2-0 with the victory for ECU. Chris Williams fell to 2-2 with the loss for UCF who all told left ten base runners stranded in their fourth straight loss to the Pirates.
Afterward, Burleson said it was nice to come in an be effective in shutting the Knights down late in the contest and then pick up a big triple to add additional insurance late in the contest.
“It was nice. That’s what what he puts me in there to do. Come in there and shut them down,” Burleson said, “Then I put some runs up in the eighth inning and that was nice. It’s awesome just to be able to get game one under our belt. We just have to take it into tomorrow. There are some things we have to work on but I think we can take a lot from today and get better tomorrow.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
UCF scored an initial run in the top of the first inning when Ray Alejo scored from third after Mathew Mika attempted to steal second base.
Then in the bottom of the first, (14)ECU jumped on Knight starting pitcher Chris Williams early with a Spencer Brickhouse two-run double down the right field line and then Brickhouse scored when Turner Brown popped out to centerfield to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead.
One inning later, Lane Hoover doubled to right field with two outs and runners on second and third to expand the early Pirate lead before Brickouse knocked in another run again with a base hit down the right field line that allowed Lane Hoover to score. That expanded the ECU lead to 6-1.
ECU only got stronger with a four run third inning to extend the lead to 10-1 on hits from Ryder Giles that scored two runs. Bryant Packard then doubled to score a run and Lane Hoover delivered a hit to center that allowed Packard to score.
Dallas Beaver’s fourth inning home run off of Jake Agnos scored a pair of UCF runs to get the Knights a little closer at 10-3 before Agnos struck out three straight batters with two runners on base to limit the damage.
With a pair of outs in the fourth, Jake Washer doubled to left field setting and eventually scored when Brady Lloyd singled to right and the Pirates took an 11-3 lead.
Zack Hunsicker made his fifth appearance on the mound for UCF in relief for Williams in the fourth inning. Williams gave up ten runs, seven of them earned to go along with four strikeouts and a walk in 73 pitches and three innings of work.
UCF wouldn’t go away and Mika’s three-run shot to left in the fifth inning ate into the ECU lead to make the score 11-6. Cam Colmore soon came on in relief on the mound for Jake Agnos who gave up six runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts in 89 pitches for the Pirates.
Ray Alejo’s single up the middle to second base in the top of the sixth inning scored a run from third to help UCF further close the scoring gap at 11-7. That prompted Cliff Godwin to bring in Sam Lanier in relief of Cam Colemore on the mound for ECU.
Lefty Luis Ferrer came on to pitch for Hunsicker for UCF in the bottom of the sixth. Hunsucker gave up a run in two innings on a pair of hits.
Then Anthony George homered in the seventh off of Lanier to cut the lead to just three at 11-8. ECU answered with a strong eighth inning where Dusty Baker homered to right followed by a Spencer Brickhouse triple that scored another run and ultimately put the game out of reach.
The two teams will meet in game two of the weekend series with the first pitch scheduled for 4 o’clock.
PI AUDIO: CLIFF GODWIN POST GAME
