East Carolina University
Memphis
2009 C-USA REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS!
May 16, 2009 | Baseball
May 16, 2009
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Brandon Henderson's walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning gave No. 20 East Carolina a 13-2 victory and a series sweep over Conference USA foe Memphis Saturday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The win coupled with a Rice loss to UAB on the afternoon, the Pirates (41-15, 17-7) win the regular season title outright, its first since 2004.
With the Sunday, 10-run rule in effect the Pirates entered the seventh leading 10-2. Ryan Wood doubled to right center with one out then took third on a wild pitch after Stephen Batts was walked on four straight pitches. Kyle Roller pushed across Wood on a ground out for a 11-2 advantage. Henderson stepped up to the plate with Batts on second and a uncorked a first pitch offering to right center for a two-run walk-off home run that ended the game and season for the Tigers at 13-2.
The Pirates, who have been hitting the cover off the ball of late, recorded 14 baseknocks with all nine starters registering at least one hit. Senior second base man Ryan Wood led the offensive attack going 3-for-4 from the dish with two RBIs and three runs scored. Stephen Batts (2 H, 3 RBI, 2 R), Austin Homan (2 H, 2 R) and Drew Schieber (2 H, RBI) also collected multiple hits.
Brad Mincey (9-4) picked up his league tying ninth win after working five innings where he allowed one run five hits with four punch outs. Bailey Daniels faced two batters in the sixth before turning the ball over to Kevin Brandt, who worked the final two innings giving up a run on two hits with four strikeouts.
Marc Ashley(1-3) suffered the loss for the Tigers (21-32, 7-16) recording just one out after -surrendering three runs on two hits with two walks. Marcus Barnes struck out four and gave up three runs in 3 2/3 innings of relief. Matt Yokley (4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, K) worked an inning and Ryan Fraser (5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, K) closed out the final 1 2/3 innings.
ECU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back. Trent Whitehead drew a leadoff walk, stole second and came home to score on Wood's RBI single up the middle. Batts followed with a double to center scoring Wood and wound up on third after a Tiger error. Henderson drove in the first of three runs on the day with a sac fly to right that plated Batts.
Batts pushed ECU's lead to five, 5-0, in the second on his second double of the afternoon to left field scoring Whitehead and Wood.
In the third inning, ECU scored another run when Austin Homan touched the plate on wild pitch making the score 6-0.
Avchen's double to right center in the fifth scored Homan to highlight another three-run inning that gave the Pirates a 9-0 lead. Whitehead followed with an RBI single that scored Avchen, and Wood singled home Whitehead to cap the scoring.
Memphis finally got on the board in the top of the sixth Jacob Wilson single to left pushing across Shawn Ablett, who doubled to start the frame cutting the lead to 9-1.
ECU got a run in the sixth, while Memphis scored one in the seventh to put the score at 10-2 setting up the seventh inning fireworks.
The Pirates will be back in action on Wednesday, May 20th when they take on UCF in the first round of the 2009 C-USA Championships in Hattiesburg, Miss.
