Francisco Home Run Highlights ECU's 8-5 Win Over Norfolk St.
East Carolina’s four run sixth inning highlighted by a Thomas Francisco three-run homer turned a one run deficit into a three run lead and the Pirates went on to beat Norfolk State 8-5 Friday afternoon in the opening round of the NCAA Greenville Regional.
Francisco talked about what he saw on the pitch from James Deloatch that led a quick turnaround in the contest.
“Hats off to Deloatch, we had a lot of guys chasing out of the zone and luckily I was able to get a good barrel on it and it went out,” Francisco told PirateIllustrated.com afterward, “It was a change-up up in the zone. Those are the ones that typically if you get a hold of, they’re going to go.”
A.J. Wilson(1-0) was credited with the victory for ECU and Matt Bridges picked up his fourth save. DeLoatch(7-3) lasted 5.2 innings, giving up four hits and four runs with three strikeouts and six walks in taking the loss for Norfolk State.
“Obviously Franny’s homer was real crucial for us to win. I’m just happy that we won. Norfolk State gave us everything we could handle and more. Their pitcher did a great job, their hitters gave our pitchers fits and just really competed against our our guys,” Cliff Godwin said, “They fouled off a lot of pitches. They gave us everything we wanted.”
“He’s actually effectively wild. You can see he walks six guys,” Godwin told PI, “So if you’re overly anxious and I thought our guys were anxious today playing in front of five thousand. It was kind of the perfect storm. We did not play well. We did not play like ourselves. We did not fly around the field and communicate on the field like we needed to, but their guy did a really good job of just keeping us off balance.”
Danny Hosley got Norfolk State on the board first when he reached on a fielder’s choice that allowed Dionte Brown to score for a 1-0 lead.
(13)ECU(42-15) then got off to a fast start in their first at-bat when Josh Moylan reached on a throwing error from pitcher James Deloatch and two Pirates runs scored on the play to put the Pirates on top 2-1.
The third of three consecutive Norfolk State hits was a Jacob Council single to left that scored a run to tie the game at 2-2 in the fourth. The Spartans then took the lead in the same inning when Mason Velasquez scampered home from third during a rundown between first and second base.
Carson Whisenhunt lasted just four innings on the mound for ECU before Garrett Saylor came on in relief to open the fifth frame. Whisenhunt gave up six hits and three earned runs with four strikeouts and a walk in his 62 pitches.
The Pirates tied the game in the fifth inning on a Josh Moylan double off the top of the left field wall and Thomas Francisco ran home to tie the game at 3-3.
Norfolk State(25-27) scored in the sixth when when A.J. Wilson never set on a pitch and was called for a balk. Ty Hanchey trotted home from third base on the play to give the Spartans a 4-3 lead.
Thomas Francisco’s 13th homer of the year was a three-run shot over the left field wall that gave the Pirates a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth. That’s when Nolan Manzer came on in relief of Deloatch who had gone 113 pitches for the Spartans.
Zach Agnos followed with a triple off the centerfield wall and eventually scored on a passed ball from Manzer that grew the ECU lead to 7-4.
Cam Colmore came in to pitch for A.J. Wilson to open the seventh for ECU and held the Spartans at bay. ECU then added a run in the eighth on a Zach Agnos bunt down the third base line that led to a Norfolk State throwing error that allowed Ryder Giles to score to make it 8-4.
C.J. Mayhue came on in the ninth and gave up one run with two outs and the bases loaded to make it 8-5. ECU then brought on right-hander Matt Bridges out of the bullpen to close out the contest.
The Pirates will play the two-seed Charlotte Saturday night at 6 p.m. who beat Maryland 13-10 Saturday night.
