East Carolina University
Cal St Fullerton
Pirates Blank No. 7 Titans, 2-0
March 10, 2007 | Baseball
March 10, 2007
ECU 2, No. 7 Cal State Fullerton 0 (PDF)
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina starter Dustin Sasser tossed 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball as the Pirates handed No. 7 Cal State Fullerton its second loss of the series 2-0 on Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium Saturday afternoon.
In front of 3,418 roaring fans, a quartet of Pirate (10-6) pitchers and timely hitting snapped the Titans (12-7) 16 consecutive series win streak, which started ironically in March of 2006 when they swept the Pirates in a three-game series at Goodwin Field.
Sasser improved to 2-0 on the year after his season-high outing, striking out three with no walks and allowing three hits. He faced 23 batters, five over the minimum, throwing 78 pitches with 54 strikes before giving way to Brett Butts, who closed out the seventh inning. Jason Neitz worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning on 16 pitches before giving way to Shane Mathews to close the game for his fifth save of the season.
Jeff Kaplan drops to 3-2 on the year after scattering five hits over six innings, including one run (earned), with four walks and three punch outs. Dustin Birosak worked two-thirds of an inning in relief, giving up one run, while Adam Jorgenson closed the final 1 1/3 with one strikeout.
In the bottom of the sixth inning Jake Dean put the Pirates on the board, 1-0, with a sac fly that scored Ryan Tousley from third. Tousley had led off the frame with a walk then moved over to second on Corey Kemp's second hit of the day, a single up the middle. Both Tousley and Kemp advanced 90 feet on a Kaplan wild pitch, setting up the winning run.
ECU added an insurance run in the seventh when Tousley's grounder to second took a wicked hop over Joel Weeks head scoring Drew Schieber and pushing the lead to 2-0.
Offensively for the Pirates, Kemp and Dean each picked up a pair of hits, while Tousley, Dale Mollenhauer, and freshman Broc Sutton tallied one a piece.
ECU will look for a series sweep Sunday afternoon at noon when sophomore Josh Dowdy takes the mound for the Pirates facing Sean Urena.
Post-Game Notes:
