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ECU Splits Double-Header With UCF on Friday to Open AAC Series

ECU's Connor Norby knocked a second inning home run in the Pirates' 4-2 game one win over UCF.
ECU's Connor Norby knocked a second inning home run in the Pirates' 4-2 game one win over UCF. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)

After winning game one, (8)ECU gave up five runs in the first three innings of the night cap as UCF played small ball to take a quick 5-2 lead and never looked back in a 10-5 win over the Pirates.

Kenny Swera(2-2) got the win for UCF while Hunter Patteson picked up the save while Garrett Saylor(3-1)took the game two loss for East Carolina.

“The difference in today was them offensively - they kept adding when they had a lead where we didn’t do that in game one and we had to go to our guys in the bullpen,” Cliff Godwin said afterward.

“Offensively I thought we shut it down when we were up 4-nothing and then I thought the dugout was dead in game one. I really thought that us having to go to our guys and our guys weren’t sharp. That’s going to happen at times but if we had kept adding on then you don’t have to go to those guys, they feel differently and you have those guys for game two and we didn’t have those guys so we had to go to other guys.”

The loss snapped a 19 game home win streak and a ten game streak overall including nine straight in league play. Godwin said it might be a good thing in the big scheme of overall events this season.

“It’s probably good for us to lose a game because fans, media and everybody thinks we’re invincible and we’re not. It’s baseball,” said Godwin, “Hopefully we’ll show up and be ready for tomorrow.”

ECU got in the act in the third inning when Thomas Francisco’s double scored a run before Makarewicz scored a run on a pop fly that let Connor Norby cross home plate.

Then in the fourth inning, Josh Crouch’s base hit through the left side scored another run to extend the UCF lead to four at 6-2.

Ryder Giles fourth inning base hit to left field brought Lane Hoover across home plate to trim the Knight lead to a field goal at 6-3.

Kenny Serwa got the game two start for UCF(18-22/8-8 AAC) giving up nine hits, five runs to go along with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work to grab the victory.

ECU(27-6/9-1 AAC) game two starter Garrett Saylor lasted just two and a third innings, giving up five earned runs on four hits with a pair of strikeouts before Carter Spivey and eventually Josh Grosz, A.J. Wilson, Landon Ginn and Nick Logusch entered the game in relief.

“They didn’t take the gas out of us. We responded back and scored runs. They just kept adding runs to their lead and how are we feeling? Well right now I’m not feeling very good because we just lost a game. I hope it hurts a little bit. We invest a lot. Our kids and staff invest a lot so it should hurt, but it’s a quick turnaround and it’s baseball.”

McCabe’s three-run homer in the seventh extended the UCF lead to 9-3 before a Francisco RBI double and a Makarewicz RBI base hit to second trimmed the lead to 9-5.

UCF added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a Alex Freeland sac fly to right that allowed Jordan Rathbone to score.

“The last time I checked there’s nobody that is 56-0 or ever will be no matter how good they are. When you look at Arkansas and Vanderbilt and all of these teams that are really, really good and they still lose baseball games,” Godwin told PI, “It’s a good test for us. Will we turn around and respond tomorrow. We haven’t been beat in conference, we just got beat and how will we respond tomorrow.”

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

GAME ONE

ECU got after UCF right-hander Zach Hunsicker(0-2) early in a 4-2 win in the Friday opener of the AAC weekend series. Hunsicker(0-2) gave up ten hits and four runs to go along with four strikeouts in 74 pitches on the mound and absorbed the loss for the Knights.

Thomas Francisco got the Pirates on the board first with an RBI single to centerfield that allowed Connor Norby to score. Then in the bottom of the second, Ryder Giles laid down a sacrifice bunt to score again before Connor Norby launched a home run to left field that put ECU up by a field goal.

Francisco, who went three for four in game one, was at it again in the bottom of the fifth inning when his right field solo homer off of Hunsicker put the Pirates up 4-0.

East Carolina starting pitcher Gavin Williams(5-0) held UCF at bay for six innings and picked up the win. Then in the seventh Williams, who yielded just three hits with ten strikeouts and a pair of earned runs in 106 pitches, was lifted for Cam Colmore.

The Knights threatened with runners on the corners before a Pablo Ruiz grounder to third eventually scored UCF’s first run of the weekend. John Montez then singled to right to score another Knight run to trim the ECU lead to 4-2.

Jordan Rathbone walked to load the bases in the seventh and Colmore was lifted for C.J. Mayhue who put out the fire with no further damage.

Matt Bridges came on late in relief to hold the Knights off at the end and in the process picked up his first save of the season.

GAME ONE BOX SCORE

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