ECU Whips UNC-Wilmington 9-1
(8)ECU jumped out to a quick early lead and then cruised to a 9-1 win over UNC-Wilmington Tuesday night at Brooks Field.
Eight ECU batters had hits. They were led by Turner Brown who had two hits in his five at-bats on the evening.
"You look at Turner Brown executing a push bunt, the first one of his career, Seth Caddell coming off the bench executing a safety sac, Lane Hoover executing a safety squeeze," ECU head coach Cliff Godwin said afterward, "We got guys in from third base with less than two. Turner Brown had an RBI late and a lot of guys came off the bench and had quality at-bats. We got bunts down and we executed which is what you have to do."
"Nick Barber played great defense at third. We moved Brady to centerfield and he had to make a great play in centerfield," said Godwin, "Bryson made a great play in right field so a lot of guys came off the bench and did their jobs."
The Pirates stuck first with a run on a passed ball that allowed Lane Hoover to score for an early 1-0 lead.
Thomas Francisco’s base hit in the second scored another run before Brady Lloyd knocked in a third run on a sac bunt. That prompted the Seahawks to make a quick pitching change for starter Gage Herring as Justin Walks came on with two outs in the frame.
Trey Benton’s wild pitch in the third allowed Chris Thornburn to scamper home from third base for Wilmington’s only run of the game. Benton was then lifted after just less than three innings of work on the mound for ECU in favor of Pirate reliever Sam Lanier.
ECU(23-7/8-1 AAC) loaded the bases in the sixth inning prompting the Seahawks to make their fifth pitching change of the night to left-hander Rain Haire who allowed Bryson Worrell to reach on fielder’s choice. Then matters didn’t get any better for UNC-W when Seth Caddell’s ground out allowed Turner Brown to scamper home to bolster the lead to 5-1.
Lane Hoover sacrifice bunt brought in ECU’s sixth run of the contest when Nick Barber scored in the seventh. In the eighth ECU added two more runs to make it 8-1 before Alec Burleson’s base hit brought in another run in the ninth.
All told, the Seahawks(17-16) went through nine pitchers over the course of the evening. ECU used six who all told, struck out 14 batters. Benton got the win to improve to 3-0 while Gage Herring with the loss fell to 0-3.
ECU next heads to top ranked UCLA for a three game series this weekend beginning with game one on Friday night at 9 pm ET
