Brandt Lifts ECU Over UVA, 6-1

Feb. 20, 2010

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GREENVILLE, N.C. - Sophomore Kevin Brandt allowed one run on five hits over 6 2/3 innings, while freshman John Wooten went 2-for-4 from the plate with two RBI in No. 11 East Carolina's 6-1 win over No. 2 Virginia Saturday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The lefty from Fuquay Varina walked three and fanned four in his first action of the 2010 season and improved his career record to 10-2. Mike Wright (1.1 IP, 1 K) and Seth Simmons (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 K) closed out the final 2.1 innings securing the Pirates 10th win over a Top 5 program in school history.

ECU's pitching staff held UVA's Dan Grovatt, Steven Proscia and Jarrett Parker hitless after the Cavalier trio combined for six hits and drove in six runs during game one of the three-game series.

Robert Morey suffered the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 4.1 innings. Neal David and Whit Mayberry worked scoreless two-thirds of an inning and Braden Kline was touched for a pair of runs in 2.1 frames on four hits.

In his first collegiate at-bat, Wooten put the Pirates (1-1) up 1-0 with a solo blast to right field in the second inning. Corey Thompson added the second run of the frame when he sprinted home on Dustin Harrington's RBI ground out to third.

ECU pushed across a pair of runs in the fifth inning to extend its lead to 4-0. Thompson led off with a single then took third on Harrington's one-out shot to right field. Thompson touched home and Harrington advanced 90 feet to third on a Morey wild pitch. After Kyle Roller drew the first of two intentional walks, Morey loaded the bases when giving Devin Harris a free pass just before Austin Homan's sac fly to center that plated Harrington.

UVA (1-1) cut the lead to 4-1 in the seventh thanks to a Phil Gosselin ground out to short that pushed across John Barr, who led off with a walk. Barr moved over to second on Kenny Swab's single up the middle and landed on third after Chris Taylor's ground out.

Cam Freeman's RBI single up the middle drove in Bryan Bass extending the Pirates lead to 5-1. Wooten followed with his second hit of the day, another shot up the middle scoring Jared Avchen and capping the scoring at 6-1.

ECU got two-hit efforts from Freeman, Homan, Whitehead and Wooten, while Avchen, Harrington and Thompson added one hit each.

The Pirates and Cavaliers will play game three of the series Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. (EST) first pitch scheduled.

Post-Game Notes:

Attendance: 5,136 was the third-largest at Clark-LeClair and marked the first time in school history the Pirates had back-to-back crowds of 5,000-plus.

Head Coach Billy Godwin won his 162nd game as the Pirate skipper moving into sole possession of fourth place on the all-time wins list. Saturday's game also marked Godwin's 600th career game as a head coach.

John Wooten made his collegiate debut starting at first base. In his first at-bat, he smacked his first home run as a Pirate to right field. Wooten ended up going 2-for-4 from the dish with a pair of RBI.

Trent Whitehead reached base for the 21st-straight game with his walk in the first inning - dating back to Apr. 21 against Elon where he was 2-for-3 at the plate. He finished the day going 2-for-3 recording his 39th career multi-hit game.

Austin Homan recorded his fifth career multi-hit game with a single in the fourth. He drove in his second run of the season on a sac fly and dating back to last season has at least one RBI in five of his last six games played.

Dustin Harrington extended his hit streak to 10 games with his single to right in the fifth.

Kevin Brandt improved to 4-0 all-time against teams ranked in the Top 25. During his freshman campaign, he was 2-0 in starts against nationally-ranked opponents (No. 1 North Carolina and No. 22 South Carolina) and notched his first collegiate win against No. 11 Oklahoma State in a relief outing where he worked 6.1 scoreless innings with seven punch outs.

The Pirate pitching staff allowed just five hits, snapping an eight-game streak where they had allowed double-digit base knocks dating back to the first game of the 2009 Greenville Regional against Binghamton (13 hits).

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