Coco Montes jacked a pair of home runs and USF exacted revenge for their Friday night loss to the Pirates by soundly beating (7)ECU 13-1 Saturday afternoon in at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Peter Strzelecki(6-2) threw a five hitter giving up just one run with four strikeouts in 112 pitches to get the complete game victory for USF. Tyler Smith took the loss for ECU to fall to 5-1.
“They’re older offensively, Strzelecki is a fifth year senior on the mound. He’s pitched in this league for three years on the weekend and he does a really good job and it’s tough when you get down three runs. If you get down more than that it’s even harder to string things together,” ECU head coach Cliff Godwin said.
“Hats off to them. They responded after last night, we knew they would and they played a lot better than we did today.”
USF(22-13/6-5 AAC) got off to a fast start scoring three runs on ECU starter Tyler Smith in the first inning on singles from Joe Genord and J.D. Dutka and an RBI ground out from Chris Chatfield.
Tyler Smith lasted just three innings, giving up three runs, two of which were earned on seven USF hits. Alec Burleson then gave up just a pair of hits in three and a third innings of work before Gavin Williams, Sam Lanier and eventually Jake Kuchmaner, Willy Strong and West Covington came on in the late innings for the Pirates.
In the bottom of the third, Turner Brown cranked a solo home run over the right field wall to cut the South Florida lead to 3-1.
Genord’s centerfield home run in the seventh scored a pair of runs to extend the Bulls’ lead 5-1. Then Coco Montes jacked his second round tripper of the game, a two-run shot to left off of ECU reliever Sam Lanier to make it 7-2.
With runners on first and third in the ninth a Kyle Phillips base hit to the right side brought in another USF run. Then J.D. Dutka scored on a wild pitch from Willy Strong to make it 9-1.
The in case that wasn’t enough, Tyler Dietrich’s base hit to left scored another run for the Bulls in a six run ninth before Montes homered to right to score three more runs to make it 13-1.
