Errors Lead to Diamond Pirates' First Loss
February 19, 2003 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- North Carolina State took advantage of four East Carolina errors and held on for a 5-4 win in college baseball Wednesday at Harrington Field.
The Wolfpack (4-2) scored four unearned runs in the third inning, during which the Pirates (3-1) committed three costly errors. The first occured with one on and two out when Justin Riley tapped a ball that ECU starting pitcher Davey Penny could not get a handle on. That opened the door for the Wolfpack as the next batter, David Hicks, blasted a two-run double to give NC State a 2-1 lead. Joe Gaetti followed with a walk and both runners moved up via a wild pitch and stolen base, respectively. NC State then made it 4-1 when Colt Morton hit a ball to Pirate second baseman Kevin O'Sullivan, who committed a fielding error then threw the ball wildly to first, allowing Hicks and Gaetti to both race home.
"We're not the type of team that can afford to do that," ECU head coach Randy Mazey said of the miscues. "We're not going to beat people with our bats right now until we settle our lineup, so we've got to be sharp defensively every night out."
The Pirates pulled within one run, 4-3, in the fifth. Luke Cherry received a one-out walk, advanced to second when Jamie Paige was hit by a pitch, and came around to score when Ryan Jones' single got past Gaetti in right field. Darryl Lawhorn followed with a groundout to plate Paige.
Hicks blasted his first home run of the season, a solo shot to right field off reliever Matt Bishop, in the seventh inning to give the Pack an insurance run which proved to be important. Trailing 5-3, the Pirates again trimmed it to one run in the bottom of the seventh when Lawhorn hit a long solo home run, his second of the season, to center field.
ECU threatened to rally again in the bottom of the ninth when Jones got on board via a one-out single and advanced to second on a Lawhorn groundout. However, Joey Devine, the Wolfpack's third pitcher of the game, got Ryan Norwood on a called third strike to end the game.
"When you come see this team play, that's one thing you're gonna see is guys that play hard and never give up," Mazey said. "Their guy on the mound is a good pitcher. He's real talented. Our guys, until the last pitch of the game, thought we were going to win the game and, to be honest with you, I did, too. In spite of the way we played defensively, until the last strike was thrown, I thought we had a chance to win it. We had the right guys at the plate in the ninth but just couldn't pull it out."
Devine (1-0) picked up the win by pitching 3.1 innings of relief, yielding two hits and one run while striking out three.
Penny, making his first appearance of the season after missing the opening weekend due to a virus, took the loss after yielding four unearned runs and four hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Hicks led NC State at the plate with a 2-for-4 outing, driving in three runs and scoring twice.
Lawhorn and Jones had two hits apiece for the Pirates.
ECU embarks on its first road trip of the season this weekend for a three-game series at Central Florida. The Pirates and Golden Knights will face off at 6 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday in Orlando, Fla. The games will not be broadcast, but live scoring for all three games will be available via a link on ECUpirates.com.
