Bristow Tosses Two-Hit Complete Game Shutout

March 2, 2008

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina junior Justin Bristow threw a complete game two-hit shutout Sunday afternoon to give the Pirates a 6-0 win over Monmouth inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win, the Pirates improve to 3-4 on the season and take the series from the Hawks (1-2) two games to one.

Bristow, who improved to 1-0 on the season, faced 31 batters, walked one, hit a pair and fanned six in his first career complete game and shutout. He held the Hawks in check allowing a double in the third inning by Bobby Dombrowski and a single by Andy Meyers in the fourth.

Matt Marc-Aurele suffered the loss working three innings, allowing four runs on six hits with one walk and two punch outs. Matt Frazier allowed two runs (one earned) in three innings of relief, while Tim Dexter (1 2/3 IP, 3 BB) and Nick Vallillo (1/3 IP) combined to close out the game.

For the second consecutive game the Pirates wasted little time in getting on the board as they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Harrison Eldridge collected the first of his two hits with a ground-rule double to center field to lead off the bottom of the first inning. With one out, Eldridge stole third base and trotted home on Drew Schieber's RBI single to center. Jamie Ray followed with another single, this time to right field, scoring Kyle Roller from second.

ECU extended its lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the second behind hits from Ryan Wood and Stephen Batts. Jonathan Ratledge and Eldridge each were plunked Marc-Aurele to lead off the inning. Wood singled through the left side plating Ratledge and moving Eldridge to second. After a double steal that put runners at second and third, Batts' infield single scored Eldridge capping the scoring in the second frame.

Ray picked up his second RBI on the game in the fifth inning on his sac fly to center that scored Broc Sutton from third pushing the score to 5-0. Sutton reached on a error by Brett Holland and advanced to third on a Frazier wild pitch.

The Pirates final run of the afternoon came in the sixth inning on Kyle Roller's sac fly to left field. With one out in the frame, Wood singled to center field and moved to third on Batts' single to left center setting up Roller's at bat.

ECU will hit the road for a pair of mid-week games against Old Dominion (March 4 - 5 p.m.) and Virginia Commonwealth (March 5 - 3 p.m.) before heading home for the Fourth Annual Keith LeClair Classic.

GAME NOTES:

Bristow's complete game shutout was the first in Clark-LeClair Stadium since Brody Taylor blanked Houston on April 2, 2006 in a 3-0 Pirate win.

Four Pirates collected a pair of hits in the game: Batts (2-for-4), Eldridge (2-for-3), Henderson (2-for-3) and Wood (2-for-5).

The Pirates stole seven bases on the day one shy of tying the school record.

Harrison Eldridge swiped three bases for the second consecutive game and is perfect 10-for-10 on the season. In all the Pirates have stolen 19-of-20 bases this season.

Jamie Ray was 1-for-3 at the plate with two RBI, the ninth multi-RBI game of his career.

In the series against Monmouth, ECU had five players bat of .417 with Brandon Henderson leading the way with his .667 (4-for-6) batting average.

ECU swiped 14-of-15 base attempts against Monmouth with Eldridge collecting seven stolen bases.

The two teams combined to hit 13 batters (ECU-8 and Monmouth-5).

All three Pirate starters on the weekend had an ERA of 1.69 or better: Bristow (0.00 ERA, 9 IP and a win); Hose (1.35 ERA, 6.2 IP) and Maness (1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP and a win).

The Pirates pitching staff fanned 23 batters and walked just four.

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