On Tuesday, Memphis run ruled ECU 11-1 in the opening game for the two teams in the AAC Tournament. On Friday it was ECU’s turn and they returned the favor, blanking the Tigers 12-0 in a seven inning victory to advance to weekend play at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida.
Gavin Williams(10-0) emerged victorious and remained perfect on the season going all seven innings in a four hitter with ten strikeouts against just a pair of walks.
Right-hander Blake Wimberly(2-9) got the start and the loss on the hill for Memphis and things did not go well, lasting just three and a third and giving up five runs, three of them earned on four hits.
Logan Walters soon followed out of the bullpen for the Tigers late in the fourth inning. That’s when Thomas Francisco’s homer to right field found East Carolina up 6-0.
By the third inning, the Pirates had already jumped out to a 3-0 lead off the bats of Lane Hoover on a sacrifice fly, an RBI single from Ryder Giles and a Zach Agnos RBI double.
Connor Norby’s RBI single to short then allowed Lane Hoover to score and improved the ECU lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning.
The route was on in the sixth inning when Bryson Worrell homered to tack on three more runs before Alec Makarewicz added another run on a triple to centerfield. Things only got worse for Memphis when Connor Norby’s two-run base hit made it 12-0 to put the game out of reach.
With the win ECU will next take on fifth seeded UCF at 9 a.m. Saturday morning. UCF has still not lost a game in the tournament and are on a six game winning streak.
If ECU beats the Knights Saturday morning, they will then have to play UCF a second time in an elimination matchup to find out who advances to the conference title game Sunday at noon.
Stay tuned for continuing coverage of the AAC Baseball Tournament here on PirateIllustrated.com.
