East Carolina University
High Point
Pirates Drop Midweek Game To Panthers, 13-2
March 25, 2015 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - High Point scored five runs in the second inning and cruised to a 13-2 win over East Carolina Wednesday night at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
With the win the Panthers improve to 12-11 on the season, while the Pirates fall to 16-10. The loss is also the third in the row for ECU marking the second time this season they have lost three games in a row - other was against then No.1 ranked Virginia to start the year.
Michael Hennessey (1-2) notched the first win of his career tossing seven shutout innings where he allowed five hits, walked four and struck out two. Jace Herrera allowed both Pirate runs (unearned) in the eighth frame working two-thirds of an inning before Jeremy Johnson (0.2 IP) and Peter Ripke (0.2 IP) closed out the final 1.1 innings.
Jimmy Boyd (2-6) suffered the loss surrendering five runs (three earned) on five hits in just two innings of work. Ross Gardner allowed a run over two innings with a pair of walks, while Mason Keen was touched for two runs (both earned) in one frames. Luke Bolka appeared in his seventh game going one frame where he allowed a run (earned) on four hits and Evan Voliva gave up four runs (all earned) in two innings. In his third appearance of the season, Cam Snow tossed a scoreless ninth.
High Point doubled up ECU in the hit column 14-7 with seven different Pirates recording a base knock. Jackson Mims came off the bench and drove in both ECU runs with a two-out single to right center in the eighth frame. Kirk Morgan pushed his current hit streak to four games with a single through the right side in the eighth inning.
UP NEXT:
ECU opens American Athletic Conference play this weekend when it welcomes in Memphis (Mar. 27-29) for a three-game set starting Friday at 6:30 p.m. (ET) at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
How It Happened:
High Point jumped on out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning thanks for four hits, two ECU errors, a wild pitch and passed ball and cruised to its 10th win in the last 13 games, 13-2.
With one out and the runners on the corners, Chris Clare singled through the left side plating Josh Greene. Tony Fortier-Bensen followed by reaching on a Morgan throwing error allowing Brady Williamson to score and pushing Clare to third base. Clare crossed home for the third run when Boyd tried to pick off Fortier-Bensen at first, but Harman was unable to locate the ball that was sitting under the runner at first. Hunter Lee kept the frame going with an single through the right side pushing across Fortier-Bensen and Cody Manzella's RBI double down the right field line scored Lee to cap the frame.
High Point continued to score plating a run in the third (passed ball), two in the fifth (Carson Jackson RBI and wild pitch), one in the sixth (double play ball) and four in the eighth (Jackson ground out and Greene three-run homer) to take a 13-0 lead.
ECU finally got on the board in the bottom of the eighth inning pushing across a pair of runs to cap the scoring at 13-2. Jack Owens, who made his collegiate debut on the night, was hit by a pitch to start the stanza and took second on Luke Lowery's fielder choice where on the same play Lee at third over threw Clare at second trying to get the force. Bailey Sugg moved the runners over 90 feet on a ground out to second before Mims' two-RBI single plated both runs.
Inside The Box Score:
The Pirates left 10 runners on base compared to the Panthers six ... ECU's pitching staff struck out one batter after fanning a season-high 13 against UNC Wilmington the night before ... The staff also allowed five walks and hit two batters after not issuing a free pass against the Seahawks ... Both teams collected five two-out hits, but High Point has four two-out RBI and ECU had a pair ... The Panthers got the leadoff runner on base five of nine opportunities, while the Pirates managed to do that just once (eighth inning Owens hit by pitch) ... With runners on base High Point was 10-for-22, while ECU was just 4-for-14.
Game Notes:
Yorgen extended his on-base streak to 26 games with a walk in the fourth inning ... Bryce Harman's on-base streak went to 22 games with a walk in the fourth ... Travis Watkins's streak was snapped at 17 games after an 0-for-2 performance as the designated hitter ... The Pirates allowed a season-high in runs (13) and hits (14) to the Panthers ... ECU has dropped four of its last five games ... Since starting the season 0-3, ECU has won 16 of its last 23 contests.
