East Carolina University
UCF
ECU Beats UCF 26-1 In League Opener
March 20, 2009 | Baseball
March 20, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Kyle Roller hit a pair of home runs and drove in five, while Drew Schieber collected a career-high five RBI to pace No. 23 East Carolina to a 26-1 win over UCF Friday night in Conference USA action at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Roller pounded a career-high five hits and recorded his third career multi-HR game and moved into 10th place on the school's all-time home run charts with 29, tying former Pirate Jake Smith. Every ECU starter collected at least one hit on the night and 11-of-14 Pirates registered base knocks. In all, the Pirates had 26 hits with six players having multiple hits and seven picking up multiple RBI.
Stephen Batts, Dustin Harrington, Devin Harris, Schieber and Ryan Wood all joined Roller with multiple hits collecting three each.
Leading 2-1 heading into the bottom of the third, ECU (14-4, 0-1 C-USA) pushed across five runs to extend its lead to 7-1 and never looked back. Wood led off the frame with a double then took third after Batts reached on an error and Roller was hit by a Kyle Sweat pitch. Brandon Henderson, who left the game in the fourth with a groin injury, drove in the first run of the inning on a bunt single just before Schieber singled up the middle scoring Batts and Roller.
Harrington pushed Henderson and Schieber up 90 feet on a sac bunt and Jared Avchen drove in his second run of the game on a sac fly to right field. Harris capped the scoring at five with a RBI double to left field scoring Schieber.
Chris Heston (3-0) notched his third win of the season after working seven strong innings where he allowed one run on seven hits (all singles) and struck out five. The freshman duo of Patrick Somers and Lance Honeycutt worked an inning each surrendering a hit and fanning one batter.
Kyle Sweat (2-2) suffered the loss for the Knights (7-13, 0-1 C-USA) lasting three innings where he was tagged for 11 runs (seven earned) on eight hits. Austin Hudson replaced Sweat in the fourth frame and worked 2 2/3 innings giving up 11 runs (six earned) on 12 hits, while Matt Goodyear closed out the game pitching the final 2 1/3 innings allowing four runs (all earned) on six hits.
Roller put the Pirates on the board in the bottom of the first, 1-0, with a two-out RBI single that scored Wood from second base. Wood drew a one-out walk and moved up to second on Stephen Batts' fly ball to center.
Avchen extended ECU's lead to 2-0 in the second with an RBI single down the left field line that pushed across Harrington from second. Harrington drew another one-out walk then took second on a wild pitch before touching home.
UCF pulled within one in the top of the third, 2-1, when Jake Huxtable singled to left field scoring Austin Smith from second. Smith reached after being plunked by a Heston pitch with one out then took second on Colin Arnold's grounded out.
After taking a 7-1 lead in the third, the Pirates continued to score at will pushing its lead to 13-1 thanks to six runs on five hits. Batts, Schieber (two), Harrington and Avchen each recorded RBIs in the frame.
The Pirates would plate two runs in the fifth, seven in the sixth, one in the seventh, and three in the eighth to close the game at 26-1.
In the fifth frame, Roller hit the first of his two home runs, a solo shot to dead center field, while Schieber drove in his fifth run of the contest with a single before being replaced by Corey Thompson.
Roller continued his hot hitting in the sixth driving in two more runs with a single up the middle and Harris cranked his second homer of the season, a three-run shot down the left field line. Roller smacked his second home run of the game to left field in the seventh, while Broc Sutton high-lighted the eighth with a two-RBI double to right field.
ECU and UCF will meet in game two on Saturday afternoon with a first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.
