Pirates Extinguish Flames 8-6
The Pirates erupted for eight runs including a pair of homers from Dwanya Williams-Sutton and then held off feisty Liberty 8-6 Tuesday night in Clark-LeClair Stadium
Jacob Wolfe picked up the win for ECU to move to 3-2, Joe Ingle got his second save of the season for the Pirates and Zander Clouse fell to 1-1 with the loss for Liberty(14-9).
“I’m not taking anything away from Dwanya. It was two solo homers. But we were able to keep the momentum going in the first inning and also the second and putting up six runs in the first two innings was really huge," ECU's Cliff Godwin said after the game.
“Everybody, we’re just competing as a team and I feel like we have a very good chance to get to Omaha this year,” said Williams-Sutton after the win.
After a forty-five minute delay with the threat of thunderstorms in the area and a subsequent 18-minute delay when some of the lights suddenly went out in Clark-LeClair Stadium, both teams scored in the first frame.
Liberty got things going playing small ball for their first run of the game. Then the Pirates scored via the long ball when Dwanya Williams-Sutton homered to left field on the first pitch from Flame thrower Zander Clouse.
Then Bryant Packard remained perfect over the last two games by getting a hit in his first at-bat that brought Spencer Brickhouse across home plate. Turner Brown and T.J. Riles both got hits too that brought home runs in the first inning to make it 4-1 Pirates.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Pirates were at it again when Dwanya Williams-Sutton came up to bat and deposited a Zander Close fastball in the left part of the jungle. Then after a 20 minute light delay, Eric Tyler’s single to center brought Charlie Yorgen home to make it 6-1.
Liberty got it going in the top of the fourth when a Andrew Kowalo double brought Trey McDyre home for a run after an ECU throwing error. Could have been two runs when the ball got past catcher Travis Watkins, but he was able to nab the ball off the wall behind home plate and throw Kowalo out at home to limit the damage to one run.
The Pirates got busy again in the bottom of the sixth stanza when Dwanya Williams-Sutton scored off an Eric Tyler pop fly. Then Bryant Packard singled up the middle and a fielding error from D.J. Artis allowed Charlie Yorgen to score on the play to make it 8-2.
A Cam Locklear ground out to short brought Kowalo across for Liberty’s third run of the contest in the top of the seventh. Then in the eighth, Sammy Toarmina’s three-run homer to right field off of ECU reliever Hunter Hood brought the Flames back to within two at 8-6.
