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USF Tops ECU 5-4 To Take Series

Nationally ranked ECU fell to USF 5-4 in the rubber match of their AAC series Sunday afternoon in Greenville.
Nationally ranked ECU fell to USF 5-4 in the rubber match of their AAC series Sunday afternoon in Greenville. (PirateIllustrated.com photo)

USF held on late to take a 5-4 AAC series victory over (7)ECU in Clark-LeClair Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Alec Wisely picked up the win for USF to remain undefeated at 2-0 and Andrew Perez got the save for the Bulls. Right-hander Colin Sullivan started on the mound for South Florida and lasted just three and a third, yielding three runs on four hits.

Pirate starter Trey Benton went three and a third innings and gave up four runs on four hits and ultimately took the loss to fall to 4-5 on the season.

“It was a hard fought game today and none of the decisions seemed to go the right way. They played better than us. They pitched a little bit better and they played better defense than us and they hit a little bit better,” Cliff Godwin said.

“We’ve got to play a little bit better to win on Sunday against a very good team,” said Godwin.

The Bulls scored first in the top of the first inning with two runners on base when Chris Chatfield doubled down the right field line to score a pair of runs to give USF(23-13/7-5 AAC) a 2-0 lead.

ECU(26-9/5-4 AAC) struck back in the bottom of the third when Jake Washer’s three-run homer to right briefly gave ECU a 3-2 lead.

In the top of the fourth, Garrett Zach reached on a fielder’s choice to score a run and then after a balk call on what would have been a throw out at first base by Ryan Ross, Tyler Dietrich singled to center field to score what proved to be a pivotal Bull run to make it 4-3 USF.

After a rain delay following the end of the sixth inning, the USF lead grew to 5-3 when David Villa homered to right field off of ECU reliever Davis Kirkpatrick.

Bryant Packard’s base knock in the eighth brought Dwanya Williams-Sutton across home plate to bring ECU back to within one at 5-4.

But after ECU right-hand reliever Zach Barnes shut USF down with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, the Pirates were unable to score in the bottom of the final inning and the Pirates suffered their first series loss of the season.

ECU next travels to Duke for a battle of ranked teams at Jack Coombs Field. Game time is at 6 o’clock.

PI PHOTO GALLERY: USF 5 ECU 4

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