East Carolina Picks Up Three-Game Sweep of Longwood with 5-3 Win
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Jimmy Boyd allowed a pair of runs over five innings of work, while Joe Ingle recorded his second save of the season helping East Carolina to a season opening sweep over Longwood 5-3 Sunday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Boyd (1-0) gave up the two runs (both earned) in the first inning before throwing up zeroes the next four frames to pick up his sixth career win in a Pirate uniform. Nick Durazo surrendered one run (earned) on three hits and tied his career-high with five strikeouts in two innings of work. Ingle tossed two scoreless frames giving up a hit and striking out one.
Zach Potojecki (0-1) suffered the loss giving up five runs (four earned) on nine this with five punch-outs in 6.2 frames. Devin Gould worked the final 1.1 innings issuing a walk and fanning one.
"It feels awesome. It was a great team effort, especially today. They gave us some their best blow late on Sunday which is what we expect every weekend. Everybody gives us their best blow every day and we've got to be ready for that especially next weekend when we go to UVA. It was just an awesome win go pick up three first games, it's awesome," said Joe Ingle who picked up his second save of the weekend.
ECU out hit Longwood 9-8 on the day behind a pair of base knocks from Bryce Harman, Travis Watkins and Charlie Yorgen, while the first five hitters in the Pirate lineup accounted for 8 of the 9 hits.
Second year Pirate Head Coach Cliff Godwin was asked how it feels to pick up the three-game sweep for opening weekend of the 2016 ECU baseball season.
"It feels awesome. We had a great crowd and they really helped us out today and anytime you can sweep a team, it's awesome," Godwin told PirateIllustrated.com, "Longwood is pretty good and you saw in the ninth inning yesterday and the way they played today. It was a close game and that was good for our guys to be in that kind of situation. I don't ever want a close game. It's good for our guys, but it's never good for me. We lose hair and lose sleep. We played good today. We played good defensively and pitched really well and offensively we did enough. They score two and we scored three, they scored one and we scored two and that's the sign of a resillient group."
"They came out early and put up two, but I like how our team responded. We came back with three and kind of got the momentum," said ECU catcher Travis Watkins, "It was kind of a grudge match from there on, but I think our guys really handled it well. We got some big hits in some big situations and Nick Durazo came in and made some big time pitches and that's important going down the road."
Longwood wasted little time in jumping out to 2-0 lead in the first inning. C.J. Roth and Colton Konvicka reached on consecutive singles putting runners at first and second for Michael Osinski, who singled through the right side scoring Roth. Alex Lewis followed and grounded into a 5-4-3 double play that plated Konvicka giving the Lancers an early lead.
ECU responded with three runs in the bottom half of the first on RBI base hits by Harman and Eric Tyler and a sac fly by Dwanya Williams-Sutton for a 3-2 advantage. Parker Lamm reached on an infield bunt single before Watkins’ single put runners on the corners. Harman laced a full-count offering to center pushing across Lamm. Tyler, who already has six hits on the season, took a Potojecki pitch to left field easily allowing Watkins to score. Williams-Sutton’s sac fly to straight away center pushed Harman across.
Jeff Nelson’s two-out triple in the fourth scored Wesley Phillips from first and extended ECU’s lead to 4-2.
Both teams plated runs in the seventh inning capping the scoring at 5-3.
Game Notes: ECU’s season-opening sweep over Longwood marks the first time the Pirates swept an opponent to begin a season since 2012 (Milwaukee) … The Pirates had a pair of two-out RBI pushing their season total to 12 … ECU advanced runners at a .500 clip (8-for-16) for the second time in the series (also 8-for-16 on Friday).
East Carolina will be back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 24 when it plays host to N.C. A&T at 4 p.m. (EST).
