East Carolina University
UCF
ECU Takes Series From UCF, 7-5
May 15, 2010 | Baseball
May 15, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla. -Jared Avchen and John Wooten each drove in a pair of runs and Seth Maness picked up his league-leading ninth win as East Carolina clinched a series win over UCF Saturday afternoon by the score of 7-5 at Jay Bergman Field. With the win the Pirates improve to 30-21 overall and 10-10 in league play, while the Knights fall to 30-21 and 7-13.
ECU, who posted its eighth double-digit hit performance in the last 10 games, pounded out 17 hits with six Pirates recording multi-hit games. Of the 17 hits, six came with two-outs and accounted for all seven runs to push the season total to 176, which is 42.5 percent of their runs (176-of-414).
Maness (9-3) worked seven strong innings allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits with four strikeouts. The junior right-hander improved to 27-8 for his career and 17-3 all-time against Conference USA members. With the victory he moved into a tie for fourth place in the C-USA annuals and sixth place on ECU's charts. Fellow classmate Seth Simmons notched his league leading ninth save (20th career) going 1 1/3 innings where he allowed one run on two hits. Kevin Brandt made his second relief appearance of the week and season recording a pair of outs in the eighth during situational matchups before Simmons closed out the contest.
Owen Dew suffered the loss falling to 5-3 after giving up six runs (all earned) on 13 hits with three strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Matt Manning went two-thirds of an inning and Joe Rogers finished the game allowing one run on four hits in two innings.
Avchen continued hit hot hitting in front of his hometown crowd pushing across a pair of runs on the first of his three hits in the top of the first inning, 2-0. Whitehead and Thompson registered back-to-back singles before moving up 90 feet on a Dew passed ball. Avchen drove in his sixth and seventh runs of the series when he took a 3-1 count down right field line.
UCF knotted the game at two in the third on Shane Brown's single through the right side. Ryan Breen and Austin Johnston roped consecutive singles before Breen scored on an error when Avchen tried to gun down Johnston at second when the ball tricked through Cam Freeman's legs.
Each team scored a run in the third to keep the game tied at three. Philip Clark doubled down the right field line and came around to score on Chris Gosik's single back up the middle. UCF's Beau Taylor singled to center pushing across Ronnie Richardson, who doubled to right field with one out.
ECU took a 4-3 lead in the sixth on Freeman's double down the left field line. Clark reached on an infield single and came around on Freeman's lone hit thus far of the series.
Wooten gave the Pirates a 6-3 lead in the seventh on his sixth home run of the season. Thompson led off with a single to right field and trotted home on Wooten's first round tripper since his grand slam against Memphis on April 10.
Jonathan Griffin pulled the Knights within two, 6-4, on a solo blast to right center in the bottom of the seventh.
Clark's third base hit of the game gave ECU a 7-4 advantage in the ninth. Avchen doubled down the right field line and touched home on Clark's infield single to short.
UCF's rally in the bottom half of the ninth fell short when Simmons got Darnell Sweeney to fly out to center where Whitehead, who was lined up in left center, sprinted to center field hauling down the fly ball. Griffin singled through the left side with one out then took second when pinch hitter Derek Luciano was plunked by Simmons putting runners at first and second. Brown doubled to right field scoring Griffin moving Griffin to third before Whitehead's amazing catch recording the final out.
Avchen, Clark, Thompson and Whitehead all had three hits for the Pirates, while Gosik and Wooten chipped in with a pair of hits. Both pitching staffs were solid as neither team issued a walk in the contest.
The Pirates will look to complete their second C-USA sweep when they return to the field Sunday morning for an 11 a.m. (EDT) first pitch.
