Long Ball Helps Pirates Down Blue Devils
April 02, 2003 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Luke Cherry's fourth-inning grand slam home run lifted ECU to a 7-2 victory over Duke here Wednesday night. Cherry finished 2-for-3 with five RBIs as he also had a run-scoring single in the eighth.
Duke (13-16) grabbed an early lead with one run in the second. Brian Hernandez tripled to lead off the frame and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Lee Lawrence.
ECU junior Jamie Paige then tied the game in the third with a run-scoring triple to left field. Paige's triple was the first three-base hit by the Pirates this season.
Trailing 2-1 with runners at second and third with only one out in the top of the fourth, the Pirates brought freshman Brian McCullen into relieve starter Ashley Capps. McCullen (1-1) proceeded to strike out the first two batters he faced to end the Duke threat. McCullen tossed 3.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts, while yielding just two hits.
Senior right-handed Glenn Tucker entered a similar situation in the eight. With runners at first and second with one out, Tucker retired both batters he faced to once again keep Duke off the scoreboard. After getting a ground ball out, he fanned Michael Golom to retire the side. Tucker earned his third save of the year, striking out two batters in 1.2 innings pitched.
ECU (19-10-1) added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom half of the eighth. In addition to Cherry's RBI-hit, Darryl Lawhorn led off the inning with his ninth home run of the season.
Tim Layden (0-3) suffered the loss for the Blue Devils after allowing five runs on six hits in 5.1 innings pitched.
"It's good to have momentum going into a weekend Conference USA series," said Pirate head coach Randy Mazey. "The guys feel like they can hit and that's the biggest part of it."
The Pirates out-slugged the Blue Devils, 10-9, and collected five extra base hits.
ECU returns to action on Friday, April 4 against Conference USA rival South Florida. The first pitch is scheduled to be tossed at 7 p.m. in Tampa.
