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Pirates Fall 4-3 to Cincinnati in Game One On Friday in CLS

Dwanya Williams-Sutton trots around the bags after a homer in the first inning in ECU's 4-3 game one loss to Cincinnati.
Dwanya Williams-Sutton trots around the bags after a homer in the first inning in ECU's 4-3 game one loss to Cincinnati. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)

Back to back home runs from Connor McVey and Manny Rodrigues in the top of the ninth inning helped Cincinnati erase a one run deficit and lifted the Bearcats to a 4-3 game one victory over (10)ECU Friday night in Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The Pirates continue to have difficulty winning conference games at home in what was the Pirates’ sixth straight home AAC loss. ECU head coach Cliff Godwin was tossed in the fifth inning.

ECU(35-13/11-8 AAC) starter Chris Holba yielded nine hits but just a pair of runs on 92 pitches in six innings of work for the Pirates. Holba gave way to Davis Kirkpatrick who pitched to just one batter before Ryan Ross got ECU out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh inning. But Ross had no answer for the Bearcats late in the game and that proved to be the difference. Ross dropped to 1-4 with the loss. Trey Benton also saw action in the ninth inning.

Five Cincinnati players had two hits or more in the contest. The Bearcats improved to 26-22 and 11-8 in conference play.

Southpaw J.T. Perez lasted 89 pitches and five innings, giving up two runs on four hits with four strikeouts for Cincinnati before giving way to A.J. Kullman. Then right-hander Clayton Colvin came on in the eighth frame for the Bearcats and picked up the win to move to 2-3 on the year. Jared Yoakam picked up his fifth save of the season for the Bearcats.

Dwanya Williams-Sutton homered in the first inning to score a pair of ECU runs to open the proceedings.

But Houston pulled back to within one when Trig Haberkorn homered down the right field line to make it 2-1 in the second inning. Then in the fifth, A.J. Bumpass’ RBI single tied the contest at 2-2.

A timely double to right field from Turner Brown in the bottom half of the eight inning broke a 2-2 tie to give East Carolina a 3-2 lead. Then a Connor McVey home run, his sixth of the year off of ECU reliever Ryan Ross, knotted the game in the top of the ninth at 3-3. Manny Rodriguez followed with a homer that gave the Bearcats a 4-3 lead.

Bryant Packard extended his hit streak to 26 games which is the third longest in Pirate history and also extended his on-base streak to 31 games.

Dwanya Williams-Sutton, who has hit four homers in the last five games, extended his hit streak to six games on his two-run home run in the first. It was his fourth multi-RBI game of the season and pushed his on-base streak to 14 games.

Spencer Brickhouse extended his on-base streak to 18 games when he was dinged by a Perez pitch in the first inning.

The Pirates return to action on Saturday for game two of the three-game AAC series with Cincinnati. Game time is at 4 o’clock.

PI GAME ONE PHOTOS: CINCINNATI 4 ECU 3

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