Connelly Carries Pirates Over Mountaineers, 8-2
February 19, 2005 | Baseball
Senior shortstop Billy Richardson led ECU on the day with a 4-for-6 performance at the plate, scoring two runs and knocking in one in the Pirate victory. Drew Costanzo, Jake Smith and Brian Cavanaugh each collected two hits for the Pirates with Cavanaugh collected a team-high two RBI.
East Carolina (2-3) got a strong performance from Chris Powell who pitched in relief of Connelly, throwing 1 2/3 innings, allowing no hits and striking out two.
West Virginia (2-2) had seven different players record a hit. Centerfielder Lee Fritz brought home the only two runs for West Virginia with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the fourth.
Chris Amedro took the loss for WVU, giving up five earned runs in 2 1/3 innings of work. He allowed just four hits but walked two batters and hit one batter. Wes Orbourn relieved Amedro, giving West Virginia 4 1/3 innings on the mound, allowing two earned runs on seven hits while striking out two and walking two. Kevin Korzun and Ryan Hill combined to pitch the final 2 1/3 innings.
The Pirates used a big third inning to take an early commanding lead. Richardson and Costanzo led off the inning with consecutive doubles. A wild pitch scored Richardson and advanced Costanzo to third. The next batter, Mark Minicozzi, reached base and advanced to second on a throwing error by WVU second baseman Tyler Kuhn, scoring Costanzo from third. After Mike Grace flew out to left, Jake Smith reached on a fielder's choice in which Minicozzi was caught in a rundown but managed to return to second safely. With runners on first and second, Adam Witter walked, loading the bases. Jamie Ray was then hit by a pitch, bringing home Minicozzi from third. The next batter, Dale Mollenhauer walked, bringing home Smith to make the score 4-0. Cavanaugh then singled, scoring both Witter and Ray to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead.
West Virginia got two runs back in fourth on the Fritz homerun, cutting the lead to 6-2. ECU would then respond by adding two runs in the seventh. Ray reached on a single to left to lead off the inning and was later brought home by a Richardson single. Costanzo then drove home Richardson with a double to close out the scoring, 8-2.
The Pirates will play Clemson on Sunday, Feb. 20 in the final game at Baseball at the Beach at 4 p.m. at Coastal Federal Field in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
