Pirates Fall to Houston 6-1 in Game Three of AAC Series on Sunday
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Mitch Ullom allowed one run in 7.1 innings of work helping No. 15 Houston to a 5-1 American Athletic Conference win over No. 19 East Carolina Sunday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win the Cougars improve to 17-10 on the year and 1-2 in league play, while the Pirates drop to 19-9 and 2-1.
Ullom (4-1) gave up his lone run (earned) on seven hits while walking one and striking out four. The right-hander worked into the eighth frame in his third-straight start and picked up his fourth consecutive win on the bump. Bubba Maxwell tossed 1.2 scoreless frames of relief issuing a walk and fanning one.
Jacob Wolfe (3-3) suffered the loss surrendering six runs (three earned) on seven hits with a pair of walks and one strikeout in 4.1 innings. The Pirates used a total of six hurlers in relief getting scoreless outings from Sam Lanier (0.2 IP, 1 K), Nick Durazo (0.0 IP, 1 H), Matt Bridges (1.0 IP, 2 Ks), Davis Kirkpatrick (1.0 IP, 2 Hs), Chris Holba (1.0 IP, BB) and Denny Brady (1.0 IP).
Josh Vidales led the Cougars offense going 2-for-3 with three RBI and Connor Hollis drove in a pair of runs. Michael Pyeatt and Connor Wong each added two hits, while Corey Julks and Zac Taylor scored a pair of runs.
Parker Lamm and Dwanya Williams-Sutton each had a pair of base knocks for the Pirates, while Lamm drove in the lone run of the contest in the third frame. Kirk Morgan, Travis Watkins and Charlie Yorgen each produced a hit on the day.
How It Happened:Houston jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second inning and never trailed as it salvaged game three in the opening weekend of conference play. Julks got the frame going leading off with a walk and took second on Jacob Campbell’s sac bunt. Hollis followed with a double the easily plated Julks for the games first run. Taylor reached on the first of four ECU errors putting runners on the corners before stealing second and moving into scoring position. Vidales drove in both runs on a sac bunt to third where Taylor was in motion on the play.
ECU answered with a run in the third cutting the lead to two, 3-1. Morgan singled to left center and advanced to second on Turner Brown’s ground out to Ullom. Lamm followed with an RBI single to left field that plated Morgan for ECU’s only run of the contest.
Houston responded with a run in the fourth thanks to a pair of Pirate defensive miscues and capped the scoring with two runs in the fifth on a wild pitch and Hollis’ RBI ground out for a 5-1 victory.
Game Notes:Lamm notched his 10th multi-hit game of the season going 2-for-4 at the dish … Williams-Sutton recorded his eighth multi-hit game of the year with a 2-for-3 performance … He also legged out his team-leading third triple in the seventh frame … Morgan, who saw his 10 game hit streak come to an end on Saturday, extended his on base streak to 12 consecutive games … ECU left eight guys on base compared to Houston’s 12 … With the loss, ECU drops to 4-3 on the season in games against top 15 programs.
Up Next: ECU will begin an eight-game road trip starting Tuesday, April 5 when it travels to in-state foe Elon. From there, the Pirates will play three games at Tulane (April 8-10), a midweek contest at UNC Wilmington (April 12) and then another three games at Memphis (April 15-17) before returning home on April 19 to host NC State.
