Pirates Slug Past Duke, 11-4

Feb. 25, 2007

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina continued its hot hitting hand Suday after noon pounding out 10 hits and scoring 11 runs in an 11-4 win over Duke in the final game of the ECU Invitational at Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win, the Pirates improve to 5-5 on the season while Duke drops to 9-1.

Senior Jason Neitz picked up his first win of the season after working 2 2/3 innings of shutout ball with five strikes in relief of starter Chris Powell, who gave up one run on six hits in 2 1/3 innings. Bailey Daniels and Mike Anderson each pitched a scoreless inning, while Joe O'Malley and Josh Ruhlman also worked an inning of relief but gave up two runs and one run respectively.

Duke starter Jeremy Gould didn't make it out of the first inning as he was roughed up for three ones on one hit in 2/3's of an inning. Alexander Hassen came in relief of Gould, surrendering three runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. Christopher Manno (1 2/3 innings, 4 H, 4 R), Will Currier ( 2 1/3 innings, 1 H, 1 R) and Kyle Butler (one inning) also saw action out of the Blue Devils bull pen.

For the third consecutive game in the tournament, the Pirates fell behind early when Duke jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Ryan McCurdy was plunked by a Powell fastball to start the game and then moved over to second on a wild pitch. Jimmy Gallagher drove in the games first run with a single to right field that scored McCurdy.

ECU answered the Blue Devils in the bottom of the frame plating three runs for a 3-1 lead. Harrison Eldridge drew a lead-off walk and advanced to second on the first of four Gould wild pitches. Eldridge then moved over to third on Dale Mollenhauer's walk and another wild pitch before scoring on Stephen Batts' ground out to the shortstop.

With one out in the first, Mollenhauer scored made the game 2-1 when he crossed the plate on a wild pitch. The Pirates tacked on another run on Brandon Henderson's double to right field that scored Corey Kemp.

In the second inning ECU padded its lead to three, 4-1, on Eldridge's sacrifice fly to right field that scored Drew Schieber. Schieber had led off the inning with a single to through the left side, stole second base and moved to third on Ryan Wood's single to left.

The Pirates continued to pile on the runs in the bottom of the third, extending their lead to 6-1 on Brandon Henderson's third home run of the season, a two-run shot. With one out in the frame, Henderson sent a 2-2 pitch from Alexander Hassan over the left field wall.

ECU added two more runs the bottom of the fourth putting the lead at seven, 8-1 when Batts laced a Manno fast ball to right-center for his second triple of the season, scoring Mollenhauer from second. Mollenhauer led off the inning with a double to center. Kemp added the final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly that scored Batts.

Schieber picked up his third hit on the afternoon with a single to center field to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. He then stole second and third base and scored on a fielding error by McCurdy to make the score 9-1. Eldridge scored the teams tenth run of the game when Batts reached on a error by Brett Bartles.

Freshman Bobby Fowler picked up his first collegiate RBI in the bottom of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly to center that plated Wood pushing the lead to 11-1.

Duke scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to draw the score to 11-3. Tim Sherlock hit his first home run of the season to lead off the inning on a 2-1 count from Joe O'Malley. Michael Ghizzoni followed the Sherlock bomb with a pinch hit double to right center and then scored on a McCurdy sac fly to left.

The Blue Devils would score one more in the top of the ninth before Ruhlman struck out Kyle Kreick and Sherlock to seal the Pirates third consecutive win.

ECU will be back in action this Friday when they play host to Pepperdine, N.C. State and Western Carolina in the Fourth Annual Keith LeClair Classic.

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