East Carolina University
Memphis
ECU Drops Opener To Memphis, 6-5
April 10, 2010 | Baseball
April 10, 2010
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -Jacob Wilson's bases loaded single in the bottom ninth lifted Memphis (14-16, 5-2) to a 6-5 win over No. 27 East Carolina (18-12, 1-3) Friday night at FedEx Park in game one of a three-game Conference USA series.
With the game knotted at five and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Memphis' Drew Martinez singled through the left side and moved to second on a text book hit and run when Chad Zurcher singled through the right side putting runners on first and third for Tyler Huelsing, who drew and intentional walk to load the bases. After Seth Simmons (1-1) fanned Rick Russell for the second out, Wilson looped a fly ball just behind ECU shortstop Corey Thompson that landed in between Thompson, second baseman Cam Freeman and a charging Trent Whitehead for the walk off win.
Trey Wiedman's two-run home run in the eighth tied the game at five shifting the momentum over to Memphis, which answered the Pirates run in the top half of the inning. Jake Harris struck out Huelsing for the first out before Russell doubled to right field. Shawn Armstrong spelled Harris for a right-on-right match up with Wilson, who he fanned for the second out of the stanza just before Wiedman lifted a first pitch offering to left center erasing a two-run Pirate lead.
Chase Joiner (1-0) picked up his first win of the season allowing a run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. Starter Brennon Martin scattered four runs (three earned) on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings with five punch outs.
Simmons suffered the loss after allowing the winning run in the ninth on three hits with three strikeouts in an inning of work. Zach Woods pitched seven strong innings giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits with four punch outs, while Harris (1 H, 1 R, 1 K) and Armstrong (1 H, 1 R, 1 K) each went 1/3 of an inning.
Four consecutive hits in the third helped the Pirates to an early 2-0 lead. Freeman singled to start the frame then took third on Whitehead's second hit of the game, a single to center. Thompson singled to right scoring Freeman and moving Whitehead to third. Kyle Roller followed with an RBI double to left center that pushed across Whitehead before Thompson was thrown out at the plate by Zurcher on the relay from Huelsing in left field.
Memphis plated a run in the bottom of the inning to cut the Pirate lead to one, 2-1. Martinez doubled to right center with two outs and crossed home on Zurcher's at-bat in which Thompson made an errant throw over to first.
Thompson's RBI double down the right field line in the fifth extended ECU's lead to 3-1. Freeman once again led off with a hit, this time a bunt single to first. During Whitehead's at-bat, which he struck out swinging, Freeman took second on a wild pitch and crossed home on Thompson's second hit of the contest.
Memphis answered the Pirates run with one of its own in the bottom of the frame. Adam McClain led off with a double to left then landed on third on Derrick Thomas' double to left. Martinez pushed across McClain with a sac fly to center pulling the Tigers within one, 3-2.
Huelsing stroked a 2-2 offering from Woods just left of the batters eye in center tying the game at three in the sixth inning. For Huelsing it was his 11th home run of the season and fifth in league play.
ECU regained the lead in the seventh on Zach Wright's sac fly that scored Whitehead for a 4-3 advantage. Whitehead reached on a fielding error by Wiedman and moved to second when Roller walked for the first time of the evening. A double steal by Whitehead and Roller moved put runners in scoring position for Wright's 31st RBI of the season.
Whitehead gave ECU a 5-3 lead in the eighth on his third hit of the game. Freeman, who also had three hits in the game, singled to right with one out and moved into scoring position on his eighth stolen base of the season before coming around on Whitehead's single to center.
Offensively the Pirates pounded out 10 hits marking the 20th time this season they have reached double digits in the hit column. Thompson joined Freeman and Whitehead with multiple hits going 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI.
The two teams will continue the C-USA series Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. (EDT) first pitch scheduled.
