Advertisement
baseball Edit

Tulane Tops (11)ECU 9-8 on Sunday in Clark-LeClair Stadium

Tulane came back from five runs down to pick up a 9-8 win in game three with ECU in Greenville on Sunday.
Tulane came back from five runs down to pick up a 9-8 win in game three with ECU in Greenville on Sunday. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)

ECU held a commanding 5-0 lead through three innings, but Tulane showed why they are one of the top teams in the AAC. The Green Wave scored runs in four straight innings including five runs in the sixth and then held on late to pick up a 9-8 win over the Pirates on Sunday.

Hudson Haskin had five hits with three RBI and scored a pair of runs for Tulane. Brendan Cellucci worked a career-high 5.1 innings after coming on in relief of Chase Solesky who gave up five runs and seven hits in just three innings.

Cellucci improved to 2-2 and got the win for Tulane. Trent Johnson picked up his first save of the season.

With the loss, ECU falls to 33-11 overall and suffered their first league defeat of the season to move to 14-1. Tulane improved to 27-16 overall and 9-5 in conference play with the victory.

Starting pitcher Tyler Smith gave up six hits and four runs in his five innings of work with four strikeouts in his Sunday start for the Pirates. Evan Voliva pitched two-thirds of an inning and ultimately took the loss to drop to 4-3 on the season.

“Anytime you lose it’s tough but I’m proud of our guys. They competed. That’s the staple of our program,” said Cliff Godwin afterward, “They played a little bit better than us. They made a couple of pitches. Our guys didn’t make a couple of pitches and we didn’t get a couple of guys in from third base with less than two outs and that was the difference in the game.”

ECU’s Bryant Packard expressed his disappointment with the loss after the game.

“That was really a heartbreaker. Once again, we showed how tough we are with our offense coming back,” said Packard, “Tyler Smith had a great start. The bullpen was a little shaky but I think our offense put us in a position to win. We just didn’t get those key hits to go our way. We played great baseball all weekend long.”

The Pirates took a quick 1-0 lead in the first frame on a Spencer Brickhouse base hit to centerfield and Bryant Packard scored from second base.

In the third inning, Alec Burleson’s two run single to center, Thomas Francisco’s RBI base hit to left and a Brady Lloyd grounder to short that allowed Jake Washer to score expanded the ECU lead to 5-0.

“We played our hearts out today,” Burleson said, “hey did a little bit more than us but we gave ourselves a chance to win especially in the eighth and ninth. We played hard and it just didn’t work out for us.”

Grant Mathews got Tulane on the scoreboard in the fourth inning on a grounder to second that let Kody Hoese score.

The Green Wave followed that up with runs in the in the fifth and sixth frames when Acy Owen’s two-out double to right field that produced a Tulane run followed by a double from Haskins in the sixth that scored a run.

Logan Stephens then blooped a short base hit down the left field line that Bryant Packard bobbled on a diving catch attempt. That tied the contest at 5-5 in the sixth.

The nightmare sixth inning continued for ECU when Acy Owen’s single to right generated two more Green Wave runs to give Tulane their first lead of the weekend. That got ECU relief pitcher Evan Voliva lifted in favor of Gavin Williams after just a pair of outs.

Tulane and ECU both cranked up a home run in the seventh. Hudson Haskin delivered a two-run shot to left for the Green Wave that gave them the lead followed by a three-run homer from Alec Burleson to help ECU close to within a run at 9-8.

The Pirates had the bases loaded in the eighth, but neither Spencer Brickhouse or Alec Burleson were able to capitalize and that may have proved to be the difference.

ECU had runners in scoring position again in the bottom of the ninth before Tulane was once again able to shut the Pirates down to claim the victory.

The Pirates return to action next Saturday in AAC action when they travel to Cincinnati with the first pitch of the three game series set for 6 o’clock at Marge Schott Stadium.

PI POSTGAME AUDIO: CLIFF GODWIN

PI POSTGAME AUDIO: BRYANT PACKARD & ALEC BURLESON

Advertisement