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ECU Breaks Out Swiffer on Sunday in a 12-1 Win Over La Salle

Travis Watkins and ECU pick up a three-game home weekend sweep of La Salle on Sunday.
Travis Watkins and ECU pick up a three-game home weekend sweep of La Salle on Sunday. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)


ECU(4-3) scored eight runs on just two hits in a 45 minute first inning and went on break out the Swiffer in a 12-1 victory and series sweep of La Salle Sunday afternoon in Greenville.

Eric Tyler and Charlie Yorgan had a pair of hits to lead East Carolina who picked up their fourth straight win in seven games.

Trey Benton had ten strikeouts and picked up the win for the Pirates while Michael Anthony took the loss for the Explorers.

“This week we worked a lot on breaking ball and off speed command. Last week we kind of struggled with that. I was kind of feeding off of Kruczynski, how after he had a bad start he jumped back from it. That’s some things that helped me a lot this week,” Benton said after the game.

“We had a lot of freebies today, but we scored twelve runs and that’s all I care about and we won the game,” ECU head coach Cliff Godwin said, “Benton was good. He had breaking ball command probably even better than his fast ball command. He was able to get ahead of hitters and really they didn’t know what was coming. I think he punched out ten guys, but we wanted him to work on continuing to get early contact because he threw 80 pitches through five innings and we wanted him to be able to go a little bit deeper into the game."

After a Charlie Yorgan single in the third inning, T.J. Riles walked and then both advanced on a wild pitch scoring Yorgan from third. Eric Tyler then reached on a throwing error before a Luke Bolka fly ball scored another ECU run in a 10-0 game after three innings against three different La Salle pitchers.

Yorgan walked, stole second base and then scored when Andrew Henrickson reached on a throwing error in the bottom of the fifth to make it 11-0 Pirates.

“He’s been crushing the ball. He hit a ball hard today to first base and yesterday to right center field, but he got a drag bunt then a single that scored two and Travis had a sac fly. They’ve done a good job. That’s why they’re seniors. They’ve done a good job for us."

Kevin McGowan reached on a fielding error in the sixth before advancing to second on a wild pitch. Then Ben Faso reached first base on a throwing error that scored McGowan to make it 11-1 Pirates.

It was the bottom of the sixth frame before Erik Janss finally got La Salle’s first strikeout of the day on ECU’s Spencer Brickhouse. Mike Flax came on in relief for La Salle. Zack Moore then scored from third off a ground out to second to make it 12-1.

With the loss, La Salle fell to 0-7 for the season.

The Pirates hit the field again when Elon visits Clark-LeClair Stadium next Wednesday. The first pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

PI GAME THREE PHOTO GALLERY

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