Pirates Unable To Hold UNC Wilmington in the Ninth
March 11, 2003 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Two base on balls, an error, and a base hit by Chip Grawey in the ninth inning propelled UNC Wilmington to a 4-3 victory over East Carolina at Harrington Field Tuesday night. The Pirates entered the final frame holding a 3-2 advantage.
Sophomore Greg Bunn (0-1) entered the ninth inning in search of his 12th career save and promptly struck out the first batter he faced. Bunn then issued a pair of base on balls before pitching to Grawey. Grawey singled up the middle and then nearly scored as Ryan Jones over ran the ball and it rolled to the outfield wall. Both runners scored on the play and Crawley was thrown out at the plate.
The Pirates had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, putting two runners on base. However, two outstanding defensive plays by UNCW kept ECU off the scoreboard.
"This was a bad game for us," said Pirate head coach Randy Mazey. "We are supposed to take pride in people coming into our own field and not letting them do what they did to us. They had much more intensity than we did; they had a bigger passion for the game. They just wanted to win more than we did."
East Carolina (10-5-1) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, scoring a run in the first, third and fourth inning. Jones hit his first of two doubles on the night in the first inning and scored the game's first run on the first of three wild pitches by UNC Wilmington starter Chris Coughlin.
Another wild pitch and Seahawk miscue allowed the Pirates to plate their second run in the third inning. After reaching on an error, freshman Mike DeJesus scored on a sacrifice fly by Jamie Paige, who had his season-high hitting streak snapped at eight games. Two ECU hits and another UNCW error allowed the Pirates to score another run in the fourth and hold a 3-0 lead.
UNC Wilmington (16-6) scored its first run of the game in the fifth as Matt Wright led off the inning with a triple and then scored on a single to left field by John Davis.
Davis then doubled in the second and scored on a pinch-hit single through the left side by Mitch Williams.
Coughlin limited the Pirates to just four hits in 6.1 innings pitched, struck out nine and walked just one. Although he allowed three runs, only one of those was earned.
Both teams used five pitchers on the night with senior right-hander Glenn Tucker proving to be the workhouse for the Pirates. Tucker tossed three innings, allowed one run and tied his career-high for strikeouts with six. Neal Sears and Matt Bishop each threw two innings for ECU, while Will Brinson tossed one.
Matt Carter (1-0) picked up his first win of the season by striking out two of the four batters he faced and Matt Sutton earned his first career save, retiring both batters he faced.
East Carolina returns to the diamond on Wednesday against N.C. A&T. The first pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 3 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro.
