Saturday, May 27
Clearwater, Fla.
4:00 p.m.
East Carolina University
45-16
14
vs
7
South Florida
20-39
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
South Florida
0
4
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
7
11
0
East Carolina
0
4
1
5
0
0
1
3
X
14
17
1
No. 15 ECU Powers Past USF To Reach AAC Title Game
May 27, 2023 | Baseball
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Despite falling behind 4-0 early on, No. 15 and top seed East Carolina scored 10 unanswered runs to defeat No. 8 South Florida 14-7 Saturday evening at BayCare Ballpark and advance to the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship title game for the second-straight season.
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ECU (45-16) is the first team in tournament history to lose its opening contest and advance to the championship game. The Pirates fell to the Bulls (20-39) 12-11 in 11 innings Tuesday but have rebounded to stave off elimination four consecutive times – including twice Saturday.
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East Carolina will face the winner of the second semifinal winner-take-all contest between No. 2 seed Houston and seventh-seeded Tulane who were scheduled to meet about 45 minutes after the Pirates knocked off USF. The championship bout will take place Sunday at Noon and will be televised on ESPNews.
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Erik Ritchie etched his name into ECU postseason lore, racking up a career-high six strikeouts and allowing just one hit in 3.1 scoreless innings. Landon Ginn finished the job by blanking the Bulls in the final two frames. Ethan Brown (2-6) was saddled with the loss, allowing six runs on five hits with two walks and a strikeout in 1.1 innings of work.
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Josh Moylan and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart posted three hits apiece while Jacob Starling drove in a game-high five runs – four with one swing of the bat via his second-inning grand slam. Travis Sankovich paced USF with two hits and two RBI.
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South Florida got out of the gate quickly, plating four runs on five hits and a Pirate error in the top of the second. However, East Carolina responded right away, putting up a four spot of its own in the home half. Jenkins-Cowart led off with a single and Joey Berini followed with a one-out single of his own. Alec Makarewicz then drew a walk to load the bases. After a strikeout, Starling got hold of a 2-2 offering and belted it over the wall in left field for a game-tying grand slam.
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The Bulls kept the offensive nature of the contest going, plating three in the top of the third thanks to a pair of home runs. Cam Clonch hit a long ball of his own in the bottom of the frame to draw ECU within two.
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The Pirates put together a big inning in the fourth, plating five runs to grab a lead for the first time. Makarewicz sparked the rally with a leadoff double and, before the dust cleared, a Cunningham sac fly, Josh Moylan two-run single and Jenkins-Cowart two-run two bagger left East Carolina ahead 10-7.
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With Ritchie keeping the South Florida bats at bay in the middle innings, Starling increased the Pirate lead to 11-7 with an RBI double to left that plated Hoover who had reached on an infield single.
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ECU put the game out of reach in the eighth. Moylan turned on the first pitch of the home half of the inning and absolutely drilled it 432 feet over the wall in right to make it 12-7. Luke Nowak would later score on a heads up base running play that allowed him to scamper home on a shallow pop up on the infield and Makarewicz drove in Justin Wilcoxen with a RBI single to provide the final margin.
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USF attempted one last charge in the top of the ninth with a pair of one-out singles, but Ginn slammed the door shut by inducing a 5-4-3 double play.
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ECU (45-16) is the first team in tournament history to lose its opening contest and advance to the championship game. The Pirates fell to the Bulls (20-39) 12-11 in 11 innings Tuesday but have rebounded to stave off elimination four consecutive times – including twice Saturday.
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East Carolina will face the winner of the second semifinal winner-take-all contest between No. 2 seed Houston and seventh-seeded Tulane who were scheduled to meet about 45 minutes after the Pirates knocked off USF. The championship bout will take place Sunday at Noon and will be televised on ESPNews.
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Erik Ritchie etched his name into ECU postseason lore, racking up a career-high six strikeouts and allowing just one hit in 3.1 scoreless innings. Landon Ginn finished the job by blanking the Bulls in the final two frames. Ethan Brown (2-6) was saddled with the loss, allowing six runs on five hits with two walks and a strikeout in 1.1 innings of work.
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Josh Moylan and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart posted three hits apiece while Jacob Starling drove in a game-high five runs – four with one swing of the bat via his second-inning grand slam. Travis Sankovich paced USF with two hits and two RBI.
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South Florida got out of the gate quickly, plating four runs on five hits and a Pirate error in the top of the second. However, East Carolina responded right away, putting up a four spot of its own in the home half. Jenkins-Cowart led off with a single and Joey Berini followed with a one-out single of his own. Alec Makarewicz then drew a walk to load the bases. After a strikeout, Starling got hold of a 2-2 offering and belted it over the wall in left field for a game-tying grand slam.
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The Bulls kept the offensive nature of the contest going, plating three in the top of the third thanks to a pair of home runs. Cam Clonch hit a long ball of his own in the bottom of the frame to draw ECU within two.
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The Pirates put together a big inning in the fourth, plating five runs to grab a lead for the first time. Makarewicz sparked the rally with a leadoff double and, before the dust cleared, a Cunningham sac fly, Josh Moylan two-run single and Jenkins-Cowart two-run two bagger left East Carolina ahead 10-7.
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With Ritchie keeping the South Florida bats at bay in the middle innings, Starling increased the Pirate lead to 11-7 with an RBI double to left that plated Hoover who had reached on an infield single.
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ECU put the game out of reach in the eighth. Moylan turned on the first pitch of the home half of the inning and absolutely drilled it 432 feet over the wall in right to make it 12-7. Luke Nowak would later score on a heads up base running play that allowed him to scamper home on a shallow pop up on the infield and Makarewicz drove in Justin Wilcoxen with a RBI single to provide the final margin.
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USF attempted one last charge in the top of the ninth with a pair of one-out singles, but Ginn slammed the door shut by inducing a 5-4-3 double play.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ritchie, Erik (2-2)
L: BROWN, Ethan (2-6)
Batting:
2B: BRODIL, Marcus 1
HR: ROZENBLUM, Ben 1 ; SANKOVICH, Travis 1
RBI: BOSER, Bobby 1 ; BRUTCHER, Drew 2 ; ROZENBLUM, Ben 2 ; SANKOVICH, Travis 2
Base Running:
RUNS: BOSER, Bobby 1 ; BRODIL, Marcus 2 ; ROZENBLUM, Ben 1 ; MAYO, Jackson 1 ; SANKOVICH, Travis 2
HBP: BRUTCHER, Drew 1
Batting:
2B: Starling, Jacob 1 ; Jenkins-Cowart, Jacob 1 ; Wilcoxen, Justin 1 ; Makarewicz, Alec 1
HR: Starling, Jacob 1 ; Moylan, Josh 1 ; Clonch, Cam 1
RBI: Starling, Jacob 5 ; Cunningham, Carter 1 ; Moylan, Josh 3 ; Clonch, Cam 1 ; Jenkins-Cowart, Jacob 2 ; Berini, Joey 1 ; Makarewicz, Alec 1
SF: Cunningham, Carter 1 ; Berini, Joey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Starling, Jacob 2 ; Moylan, Josh 2 ; Clonch, Cam 2 ; Nowak, Luke 1 ; Jenkins-Cowart, Jacob 1 ; Wilcoxen, Justin 1 ; Berini, Joey 1 ; Makarewicz, Alec 2 ; Hoover, Lane 2
SB: Cunningham, Carter 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
2
H
3
RBI
3
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
2
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
5
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballOF/1B/LHP
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RHP
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/ Baseball
INF/OF
/ Baseball1B
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballINF/OF
/ Baseball
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