East Carolina University
UCF
ECU Cruises Past UCF 11-6
May 14, 2010 | Baseball
May 14, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla. - Zach Woods struck out eight batters in 6 1/3 innings, while Jared Avchen and Trent Whitehead each collected three hits with a home run to pace East Carolina to a 11-6 win over UCF in the three-game Conference USA opener Friday night at Jay Bergman Field. With the win the Pirates snap their four-game conference losing streak improving to 29-21 overall and 9-10 in league play, while the Knights fall to 30-20 on the season and 8-11 in league play.
Woods, who moved to 8-3 on the year, got excellent run support from his offense as the Pirates jumped out to a 9-0 lead after five innings and never looked back. The right-hander from Virginia Beach, Va. allowed three runs (all earned) on eight hits with four walks. Jake Harris (3 H, 1 R, 1 K) and Brad Mincey (1 H, 2 R, 1 K) each tossed 1 1/3 inning of relief to seal the win for the Pirates.
Johnny Sedlock's pitching stint was brief after being touched for six runs (all earned) on eight hits with a pair of strikeouts falling to 2-4 on the year. Bryan Brown worked 4 2/3 innings of relief giving up five runs (all earned) on five hits with four strikeouts and Cory Weech tossed the final 1 1/3 innings holding ECU scoreless with a walk and two punch outs.
ECU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning thanks to a solo home run by Avchen and a RBI single off the bat of Whitehead. Avchen smashed his sixth home of the season, fourth in C-USA play, to left field leading off the inning. Philip Clark doubled to left center, Chris Gosik followed with an infield single deep in the hole to short pushing Clark over to third before Whitehead lined a shot to right that scored Clark.
The Pirates added three runs in the third to push their lead to 5-0. Kyle Roller started the frame after being plunked by Sedlock, the first of his four hit by pitches on the night, which established a new single-game school record. John Wooten reached on an infield single putting runners on the corner for Devin Harris, who singled to right center scoring Roller and moving Wooten to third. Avchen followed with his second RBI a sac fly to right field that scored Wooten. Clark capped the scoring with a RBI single to left center which scored Harris.
Three more hits and a three runs in the fourth extended ECU's lead to 8-0. Whitehead singled up the middle to start the inning, took second on a passed ball and third on a wild pitch after Roller was hit for the second time in the game. Whitehead touched home when Wooten grounded out to short, that also pushed Roller up 90 feet with two outs. Harris singled home Roller and Avchen drove in his third run with a single to left center that scored Harris.
Whitehead homered down the left field line with two outs in the fifth to put ECU up 9-0 before UCF finally got on the board in the bottom of the frame thanks to Chris Taladay's RBI double down the left field line that scored Chris Duffy putting the score at 9-1.
Taladay continued his hot hitting by driving in a both the Knights runs in the seventh reducing the Pirates lead to six, 9-3. Duffy, who was 2-fof-2 with a pair of walks, singled on a ball hit deep behind second base with one out. Ronnie Richardson followed with a double down the left field line and Taladay cleared the bases with a single to center.
ECU responded with a pair of runs in the top half of the eighth to push its lead back eight, 11-3. Thompson singled to right then took second when Roller was hit for the third time. Wooten moved both runners into scoring position on a groundout to second before Avchen emptied the bases with a two-out RBI single to center, pushing his total to a career-best five RBI.
The Knights would score one in the eighth and two in the ninth before Mincey struck out Darnell Sweeney to end the game.
Offensively the Pirates pounded out 14 hits with five players recording multi-hit games, while three players had multi-RBI contests.
The two teams will be back in action Saturday afternoon when Seth Maness and Owen Drew go head-to-head on the bump starting at 4 p.m. (EDT).
