Pirates Squeeze Out Win Over Delaware
February 28, 2003 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina rallied from an early three-run deficit then used a squeeze play to score the go-ahead run as the Pirates defeated Delaware, 7-5, in college baseball Friday at Harrington Field.
Shortstop Luke Cherry was 2-for-2 with two doubles and two RBI, including the game-winner in the eighth inning. With the score tied 5-5, Mark Minicozzi led off with a double and John Poppert legged out a bunt single to put runners on first and third with no one out. Cherry followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt which dribbled down the first base line as Minicozzi raced home from third base.
The Pirates (6-3) added an insurance run later that inning when Poppert stole third, then came home when catcher Brian Valichka's throw went into left field.
"I think we won this game today by playing small-ball," ECU head coach Randy Mazey said. "We bunted the ball real well. That's the way we're going to have to play. We have to execute and do the little things right and that's how we're going to win ball games."
ECU drew first blood by gaining a 1-0 lead in the second on Cherry's RBI double, but neither team scored again until the sixth inning when Delaware (0-4) exploded for four runs. Pirate starter Will Brinson ran into trouble by giving up four hits and a pair of wild pitches. Brock Donovan hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, Doug Eitelman hit an RBI single, and Steve Harden slapped a double down the left field line to make it 4-1.
However, the Pirates rallied back, just as they had in each of their previous five victories this season. Darryl Lawhorn hammered a solo home run--his third--in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-2, and the Pirates scored three runs in the seventh to go up, 5-4. All three of those runs were unearned as a two-out error opened the door for an RBI single by Ryan Jones and a two-run hit by Ryan Norwood.
Delaware came right back to knot the score at 5-5 in the top of the eighth on Kris Dufner's solo home run.
The Pirates' eighth-inning surge made a winner of relief pitcher Matt Bishop, who improved to 3-0 by allowing one hit--Dufner's homer--in two innings. Greg Bunn struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth to gain his third save.
Reliever Mike Mihalik (0-1) was the hard-luck loser for the Blue Hens as four of the five runs he was charged with were unearned.
The game was the first of a three-game series between the two teams. Saturday's first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Postgame Notes:
