East Carolina University
Tulane
ECU Claims Weekend Series Over Tulane, 11-4
April 03, 2015 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Bryce Harman hit a pair of solo home runs while Jimmy Boyd struck out a career nine batters helping East Carolina to an 11-4 win over Tulane Friday night at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
With the win the Pirates improve to 19-12 overall and 3-2 in league play, while the Green Wave drops to 19-12 and 1-4.
Boyd (3-7) notched his first win since Mar. 17 tossing four-plus shutout innings of relief. The right-hander stuck out nine of the 16 batters he faced which included the final seven out of the contest. Starter Evan Kruczynski allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits with a walk and three punch-outs over 4.2 innings.
Dan Rankin (3-1) was saddled with the loss surrendering two runs (both earned) with a pair of walks in just two-thirds of an inning in relief. Starter Emerson Gibbs allowed three runs (all earned) on six hits with a free pass and three strikeouts in five innings of work. Jordan Gross and Eric Steel each gave up a run without recording an out, while Ian Gibaut was touched for four runs (all earned) on four hits in 2.1 frames.
The Pirates tallied 13 hits on the night (four going for extra bases) marking their 13th double-digit hitting contest of the season and first since Mar. 18 (vs. Princeton). Eight of nine starters collected at least one base knock, with Harman (3), Reid Love (2), Luke Lowery (2) and Charlie Yorgen (2) each posting multi-hit games. Harman (3), Lowery (3) and Travis Watkins (2) each drove in multiple runs on the night.
Lex Kaplan led the Green Wave offensively recording a pair of hits including a solo home, his fourth of the year. Six other Tulane players added base hits, while John Gandolfo and Tyler Wilson joined Kaplan with and RBI.
UP NEXT:
ECU will look to complete the series sweep over Tulane when the two teams meet for game three Saturday at 12 Noon (ET) at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
How It Happened:
Trailing by one (4-3), ECU scored four runs in the sixth and seventh frames taking control of the game and cruising to its third conference win. With the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, Watkins' laced a two-RBI single to left field plating Love and Parker Lamm for the go-ahead run. Lowery followed with an RBI base hit to left field scoring Yorgen and Harman capped the inning with the Pirates third-straight run scoring single to left pushing across Watkins for a 7-4 advantage.
Lamm scored the first run in the seventh on an errant throw by Tulane's Jake Rogers behind the plate trying to gun down Lamm on a double steal. Moments after the Green Wave miscue, Yorgen singled home Hunter Allen and two batters later Lowery cleared the bases with a two-RBI triple to right center plating Yorgen and Watkins making it an 11-4 game.
Tulane struck first in the second inning, 1-0, when Kaplan blasted a Kruczynski first pitch offering over the right field wall.
Harman answered Kaplan's homer hitting solo home runs of his own in the second and third frames, which gave ECU a 2-1 lead.
Garrett Deschamp tied the game at two-all when he scored on a Pirate error off the bat of Stephen Alemais in the top of the fifth. Two batter's later Richard Carthon scored on Gandolfo's RBI fielder's choice and Wilson's RBI single to center plated Alemais putting Tulane up 4-2.
Love belted his third home run of the season with a shot down the right field line in the bottom of the fifth pulling ECU within one, 4-3.
Inside The Box Score:
ECU recorded four two-out hits (99 on season) which lead to six runs pushing its season total to 73 ... All six of ECU's two-out RBI came from the three through five hitters (Watkins/2, Lowery/3, Harman/1) ... Six of the Pirates' leadoff runners reached base, while Tulane had one ... ECU advanced runners at 44.4 percent clip (12-for-27) and was 5-for-10 with RISP ... The Pirates left 10 runners on base compared to seven for the Green Wave ... Kruczynski and Boyd combined to strikeout 12 batters marking the fourth time this season ECU has had double-digit punch-outs - they also walked just one.
Game Notes:
Harman's two-HR game was the second of his career with the other also coming against Tulane last year in a 13-3 eight inning win on Mar. 15 ... It marks the second time this season a Pirate has smacked a pair of home runs in a game (other Luke Lowery vs. UNCG on Feb. 21) ... Love extended his hit streak to five games with a solo home run in the fifth - his third of the season ... Kirk Morgan's on-base streak reached a career-best nine games when he got on with a bunt single in the sixth ... Boyd's is the second ECU hurler to flirt with double-digit punch-outs in a contest (other David Lucroy vs. Memphis) ... Five players (Harman, Lamm, Love, Yorgen and Watkins) each scored two runs in the game.
