East Carolina University
UNC Asheville
Pirates Defeat Bulldogs, 21-1
March 11, 2009 | Baseball
March 11, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. - No. 20 East Carolina used 17 hits from 10 players to pace it to a 21-1 win over in-state foe UNC Asheville Wednesday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win ECU improves to 10-2, while the Bulldogs drop to 3-11.
Ten different Pirates collected hits on the afternoon with seven of them recording multiple hits. The Pirates, who scored a season-high 21 runs, plated multiple runs in all but one inning, failing to push across a run in the bottom of the fourth frame.
Sophomore Austin Homan led the squad with four RBIs, while Drew Schieber added three and five others drove in a pair. Dustin Harrington extended his current hitting streak to 16 games with his double to left-center in the seventh and Stephen Batts pushed his hit streak to 14 games in the fifth frame.
Freshman Shawn Armstrong (1-0) made his collegiate debut on the mound and picked up the win working four scoreless innings where he faced 17 batters allowing two hits and one walk. The Pirates used five pitchers to close out the game with Mike Wright (1 H, 1 K), Joe O'Malley (1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 Ks), Britton Cole (1 H, 1 K), Ryan Wood (1 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks) and Lance Honeycutt (1 H, 1 K) all working an inning in relief. In all, the Pirate pitchers fanned seven batters, walked one and allowed seven hits.
Dan Weller (0-1) suffered the loss after allowing six runs (one earned) on three hits while walking two in an inning. Dillon Tabor went two innings giving up four runs (all earned) on two hits with three walks and one strikeout. Four other Bulldog pitchers made appearances on the bump combining to surrender 11 runs on 12 hits with six walks and a pair of strikeouts.
The Pirates jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back. Wood plated the first run on the frame with an RBI single that scored Trent Whitehead from first base and took second on the center fielder's throw to the plate. Wood moved over to third on Batts' fly ball out to center then touched home when Justin Schumer sailed a Kyle Roller grounder over the head of the Bulldogs catcher putting the Pirates up 2-0. Brandon Henderson followed with a single to left pushing Roller to third after he swiped second base. Schieber recorded the first of this three RBI on the day with a sac fly to center scoring Roller. Jared Avchen closed out the inning with a two-out two-RBI double to right that scored Henderson and Harrington.
ECU put up three runs in the second, two in the third and three in the fifth to take a commanding 13-0 lead before UNC Asheville finally got on the board in the sixth. With one out in the inning, Beau Zinman homered to right field off of O'Malley making the score 13-1. The Pirates would tack on eight more runs (three in the sixth, two in the seventh and three in the eighth) to close out the game with a 21-1 win.
In a platoon role, Corey Thompson went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, Zach Wright was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs which included his first collegiate home run and Homan was 2-for-3 with a team-best four RBI.
The Pirates will be back in action on Friday, Mar. 13 when they welcome in Pac-10 member UCLA for the first of three games. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. (EDT).
Post-Game Notes:
