GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – East Carolina University baseball playing on Monday in the deciding game of the Greenville regional after beating Evansville 19-6 Sunday night.
After losing to Evansville in game one of the NCAA Regional tournament on Friday, the Pirates have rallied through the losers bracket, beating Wake Forest and VCU to take on the Purple Aces for a third time in the Super Regional deciding game. The winner of today’s game will face Tennessee in Knoxville.
Pirates playing a doubleheader yesterday to get to the final game. ECU beat No. 3 seed VCU in a 10-7 victory and won 19-6 over No. 4 seed Evansville Sunday inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Sunday’s game against the Purple Aces was full of action:
ECU using the long ball early got a 2-run homer from Ryan McCrystal in the first to go up 2-0.
Carter Cunningham delivered a 2-run home run of his own to put ECU up 4-2 after 2 innings.
Luke Nowak made it a hat trick with a 2-run home run in the third to lead 6-3 after 3.
They traded runs again in the 4th. McCrystal has an RBI double and put the Pirates up 7-4 after 4.
McCrystal would drive in two more runs with a single in the sixth Pirates lead 9-4 after the middle innings.
A bases-loaded walk by Cunningham in the 7th gets the Pirates up 10-4.
Ethan Norby got the start for the Pirates. He went 5.1 innings and kept the Pirates ahead while collecting outs. He had 4 runs on 5 hits with 9 strikeouts. Charlie Hodges got the final two outs of the sixth.
The Purple Aces loaded the bases in the 7th and got a couple of runs on a fielders choice and a sac fly. 10-6 Pirates after 7. Colby Wallace and Erik Ritchie did a nice job limiting the potential damage.
In the 8th, ECU gets them back as Jacob Jenkins-Cowart slid around a tag at home on a grounder by Nowak. Then Justin Wilcoxen singled in another to go up 12-6.
Jaden Winter came in and hung a zero in the bottom of the 8th.
Pirates add more insurance with a bases-loaded walk, wild pitch and a fielders choice and an RBI single for Nowak.16-6 ECU lead in the 9th.
Starling continued the big inning with a 3-run homer to take the score to 19-9 Pirates. Winter closed it out.
The deciding game will be played on Monday at 12:06 PM.