East Carolina University
Liberty
Pirates Drop Season Opener 6-2 To Liberty
February 09, 2007 | Baseball
Feb. 9, 2007
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Errol Hollinger smacked a grand slam to left field and Tyler Light pitched five innings of scoreless relief as Liberty defeated East Carolina 6-2 in the season opener for both schools Friday afternoon at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Aaron Phillips led off the second inning with a single to center, which was followed by Garrett Young's single up the middle and a P.K. Keller walk to load the bases for Hollinger to put the Flames (1-0) up 4-0.
Light picked up the win on the day allowing just one hit in five innings of relief with one walk and four strikeouts. Flame starter Michael Solbach worked four innings allowing two runs (one earned) with two walks and two strikeouts.
Suffering the loss for the Pirates was junior right-hander T.J. Hose who went 3 2/3 innings allowing five runs, all earned, seven hits with five walks and a pair of strikeouts. Also making appearances on the rubber for ECU were seniors Jason Neitz (1/3 inning and one strikeout) and Mike Flye (1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts), along with juniors Josh Ruhlman and Brett Butts. Daniels finished his outing working 2 2/3 innings giving up four hits and surrendering one run.
The Pirates (0-1) answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third when sophomore Drew Schieber hit his first collegiate homerun to right field. Harrison Eldridge followed Schieber's at bat with a single up the middle and then advanced to second on a passed ball. Dale Mollenhauer drove in the final run of the night with another single to right to pull the Pirates within two, 4-2.
In both the top of the fourth and fifth innings, the Flames added insurance runs to push the score to 6-2. Patrick Gaillard drew a bases loaded walk off of Pirate starter T.J. Hose to push the lead to 5-2. Young would extend Liberty's lead to four, 6-2, with a solo shot to left field off of Bailey Daniels.
Offensively the Pirates were able to only muster six hits, while leaving nine runners on base. Liberty did not fare any better as they left 15 runners on the base paths.
Pirate hitters Jake Dean and Dale Mollenhauer each extended their current hit streaks to nine games.
The two teams will meet again on the diamond Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. with Jeff Ostrander taking the mound for ECU and Dustin Umberger toeing the rubber for Liberty.
