ECU Tops Elon 7-5 in 12 Innings
ELON, N.C. – No. 16 East Carolina scored a pair of runs in the top of the 11th inning, which came on two wild pitches, and walked out of Walter C. Latham Park with a 7-5 win over in-state foe Elon Tuesday night. With the win the Pirates improve to 20-9 on the season, while the Phoenix dropped to 10-18.
Joe Ingle (4-2) picked up the win working a career-high four innings where he allowed one run (earned) on four hits with seven strikeouts. Nick Durazo made his second start of the year tossing 4.2 innings of no-hit ball on a predetermined pitch count, where he faced two over the minimum. The lefty struck out a career-high nine batters and issued two walks before ECU went to the bullpen. Four Pirate hurlers bridged the gap to Ingle in Sam Lanier (0.1 IP), Cam Colmore (0.0 IP, 2 Rs), Matt Bridges (2.0 IP, 3 Ks) and Chris Holba (0.0 IP, 2 Rs).
Joe McGillicuddy (0-2) suffered the loss allowing both runs in the 11th, which came on wild pitches to consecutive Pirate batters (Brady Lloyd and Turner Brown). The right-hander also issued three walks in his 1.2 innings. Starter Jordan Barrett gave up three runs (all earned) on six hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts in five innings. Just like ECU, Elon went to the bullpen often on the night using five relievers between Barrett and McGillicuddy.
Brown and Dwanya Williams-Sutton each had three hits in the game (both tying career-highs), while Williams-Sutton drove in a pair of runs. Eric Tyler added two hits (single and double) and scored two runs along with Travis Watkins. In all, ECU tallied 12 hits getting at least one base knock from seven starters.
Ryne Ogren and Nick Zammarelli accounted for four of Elon’s seven hits with both posting a pair in the contest. Zammarelli’s drove in a game-high four runs with three coming off his three-run homer in the eighth off Ingle that tied the game at five-all.
How It Happened:With the game tied at five-all in the top of the 11th, ECU pushed across a pair of runs on two wild pitches by McGillicuddy and held on for a 7-5 win. Watkins scored the game-winner when he darted home on the first wild pitch, which was on a swing and miss by Brady Lloyd with the bases loaded and two outs. After Lloyd reached to keep the bases juiced, McGillicuddy once again was wild, this time during Brown’s at-bat and Tyler scored the final run of the night.
ECU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Watkins’ 18th RBI of the season. Parker Lamm laced his first extra base hit of the year, a leadoff double, and took third on Charlie Yorgen’s sac bunt. Watkins made it a 1-0 contest with a run scoring single up the middle in the top of the first inning.
Williams-Sutton’s solo home run and Yorgen’s sac fly to left field pushed the Pirates lead to 3-0 in the fifth. Williams-Sutton led off with his second homer of the season sending a shot over the left field wall. With the bases loaded and one out, Yorgen sent a fly ball to left field plating Brown for his eighth RBI of the year.
Williams-Sutton’s second RBI of the contest extended ECU’s lead to 4-0 in the sixth. Tyler doubled to start the stanza, took third on Bryce Harman’s fly out to center and crossed home on Williams-Sutton’s third hit of the night, a single through the left side.
Elon finally scratched across a pair of runs in the sixth cutting the lead to 4-2. Orgen’s RBI triple plated Austin Lenney from first for the first run and Zammarelli’s sac fly to center scored Orgen.
Watkins scored the Pirates fifth run of the game on a wild pitch that made it a 5-2 ball game in the top of the seventh.
Zammarelli knotted the game at five-all on his three-run homer to straight-away center field in the eighth. Lenney and Orgen reached on consecutive singles off of Ingle, before Zammarelli cleared the bases on his fifth round-tripper of the year.
Game Notes:Durazo fanned a career-high nine batters including five in a row from the first to second inning. Luke Bolka extended his hit streak to six games with a leadoff single in the second, while pushing his on-base streak to eight games. Williams-Sutton registered his ninth multi-hit of the season going 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBI He registered his team-leading sixth multi-RBI contest. His three base knocks tied his career-high. Kirk Morgan’s single in the sixth pushed his on-base streak to 13-straight games. ECU improved to 13-2 when scoring first in a contest and 13-3 when reaching double-digits hits. Tyler recorded his team-leading 11th multi-hit game of the season going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Brown tied a career-high with three hits. ECU struck out a season-high 19 batters.
Up Next: ECU will continue its eight-game road trip when it travels to Tulane (April 8-10) for a three game series in American Athletic Conference action. First pitch on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m. (ET).
