East Carolina University
Virginia
ECU's Comeback Falls Short, 14-11
February 21, 2010 | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2010
No. 2 UVA 14, No. 11 ECU 11 (PDF) 
GREENVILLE, N.C. -Second-ranked Virginia (2-1) held off a late rally by No. 11 East Carolina (1-2) Sunday afternoon and took the rubber-match of the three game series 14-11 at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Cavaliers held a commanding 13-4 lead before the Pirates came roaring back by putting a seven spot on the board in front of 4,774 fans cutting the lead to two, 13-11. Senior Kyle Roller started the comeback when he roped a double to right center, the first of his two hits in the eighth. Devin Harris followed with an RBI single up the middle and Austin Homan laced a single through the left side. Both runners moved up 90 feet on Zach Wright's ground out and Harris touched home on Chris Gosik's sac fly to left to make the score 13-6.
John Wooten continued the come back when he took a Corey Hunt off speed pitch to right field for his second home run on the young season, a two-run shot. Philip Clark and Trent Whitehead drew back-to-back walks before Dusting Harrington cleared the bases with a double down the left field line. Roller capped the scoring with single up the middle to pull the Pirates within two.
Chris Taylor `s RBI triple to right center secured the win for the Cavaliers in the top of the ninth pushing across John Hicks for a final score of 14-11.
Neal Davis (one hit) picked up his first win of the season after working 2.1 innings of relief allowing where he gave up a hit. Starter Cody Winiarski was chased after 3.2 frames after surrendering four runs (all earned) on three hits with four walks and two strikeouts. The Cavaliers used three pitchers to bridge the gap between Davis and Kevin Arico, who got the save after scattering one hit over 1.1 frames.
Brad Mincey was saddled with the loss after allowing six runs on seven hits in 1.2 innings, the second shortest outing of his career (1.1 vs. UNCW on Apr. 29, 2008). Head Coach Billy Godwin used a total of seven pitchers in relief of Mincey trying to slow down the Cavalier offense. Freshman Tyler Joyner (1.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 1 K) and Jake Harris (1.1 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 2 BB) made their collegiate debuts, while Sthil Sowers, Shawn Armstrong, Mike Anderson, Patrick Somers and Seth Simmons each made appearances on the afternoon.
With the game knotted at one in the second, UVA exploded for six runs and took a commanding 7-1 advantage. Hicks led off with a double to right center before scoring on Keith Werman's RBI single. Phil Gosselin blasted a two-run shot to left center pushing across Werman to extend the lead to 4-1. Back-to-back two-out base hits from Dan Grovatt (single) and Scott Proscia (double) sent Mincey to the showers. Tyler Cannon followed Jarrett Parker's walk with another UVA double scoring Proscia and Parker before Joyner fanned Hicks.
Corey Thompson's sac fly in the bottom half of the frame made the score 7-2. Jared Avchen and Cam Freeman both singled to left before Wooten pushed Avchen to third on a fielder's choice and Thompson lifted a fly ball to right field scoring Avchen.
UVA plated two runs in the fourth and four in the sixth seemingly putting the game out of reach at 13-4.
Offensively, Virginia pounded out 19 hits to ECU's 11 with Harrington, Homan and Roller each recording two hits. Grovatt and Werman recorded three hits each and led seven Cavaliers with multi-hits.
The Pirates will be back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 23 when they play host to former Colonial Athletic Association foe Old Dominion with a first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. (EST).
