Josh Moylan and Seth Caddell both homered and Alec Makarewicz added a pair of RBI in (9)ECU’s 11-5 win over Illinois State for the series win on Saturday.
The Pirates have played better and better as the weekend has progressed and afterward, Cliff Godwin gave his take on the team’s second straight victory.
“We hit a lot of balls hard. I think we had 23 or 24 quality at-bats, but the runs - we walk a lot, Franny got hit by a pitch for an RBI,” Godwin told PI, “I thought we had really tough at bats and that’s much different than we had last night. When we’re relentless about sticking to our approach one through nine we can be really special. When we’re not we’re below average.”
Jake Kuchmaner gave up five runs, three of them earned on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts in his Saturday start for the ECU(15-3) before Garrett Saylor(1-0) came on in relief to pitch four scoreless innings of shutout baseball to shut the door on the Redbirds and pick up the his first victory of the year.
“Saylor obviously a guy last year who we went to a lot. He’s been wanting the ball. We kept telling him that his time would come and he’s been battling probably just wanting to get out there and some negative thoughts going through his head,” said Godwin.
“You get out there, you spike a breaking ball and they score a run and we really minimized that inning. Then once he got out of that inning it was game over and you saw the last three innings of what he can do. He’s special when he believes in himself like he did today. He’s throwing four pitches for strikes and it was really awesome to see.”
Jordan Lussier got the start, giving up three earned runs and six hits with three strikeouts for Illinois State(5-11) before Erik Kubiatowicz took the loss.
“First batter, I kind of had some jitters but once I got that first batter out of the way I said so what,” Saylor said, “Getting the next pitch, we always talk about attacking the zone on the next pitch, so that was my mindset throughout the whole outing.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster,” Saylor told PirateIllustrated.com, “Knowing that I have the offense behind me and the defense behind me is always great.”
The Redbirds scored a pair of runs in the first inning on a Libman base hit to centerfield and a fielder’s choice from Ryan Cermak that allowed Jordan Libman to score.
In the top of the third Illinois State was at it again when Jack Butler’s pop fly to right field allowed Libman to score again for an early 3-0 lead.
Seth Caddell then got ECU on the board with his fourth inning homer that put a pair of Pirate runs up and cut the Redbirds lead to one before tying the game on a Connor Norby pop fly to right that allowed Zach Agnos to score.
Illinois State reclaimed the lead on a Gunner Peterson base knock to right in the sixth inning followed by a Garrett Saylor wild pitch that allowed Cermak to score to give the Redbirds a two run cushion.
A pair of walks put two Pirates on base in the bottom of the sixth and following a Erik Kubiatowicz wild pitch that advanced the runners. Alec Makarewitz then doubled to right center to score a pair of ECU runs and tie the game before Zach Agnos singled to center to give ECU a 7-6 lead.
Josh Moylan homered in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of Pirates onboard and suddenly ECU was in command at 9-5. One inning later, the Pirates loaded the bases for Thomas Francisco who was hit by a Jackson Bronke pitch to score a run before a wild pitch produced another run to put ECU up by a touchdown.
Godwin talked about Moylan’s at-bat that blew the game wide open.
“It was a big at-bat. I knew if Josh stuck to his approach and really let the ball get deep and the guy made a mistake and he put a good swing off on it, it’s a big blow and Josh can be really special at times as a freshman and we’re glad that he got a swing off.”
East Carolina returns on Sunday with a chance to pick up a weekend sweep of Illinois State when the two teams meet at 11:30 a.m.
