Saturday, March 16
Greenville, N.C.
4:00 p.m.
East Carolina University
13-4
8
vs
0
Columbia
3-10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Columbia
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
East Carolina
0
0
1
1
0
2
2
2
X
8
8
2
No. 11 ECU Two Hits Columbia To Clinch Series
March 16, 2024 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Sophomore LHP Zach Root tossed six scoreless innings to set the tone Saturday afternoon as No. 11 East Carolina cruised to an 8-0 victory over Columbia inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium to secure its fifth series win of the campaign.
The Pirates (13-4) tossed their third shutout of the season while improving to 8-1 at home. The Lions (3-10) fell for the seventh-straight time with four of those contests occurring against Top 25 squads.
Dixon Williams clubbed his second home run of the year to polish off a 2-for-3 performance that included a trio of runs driven in and a run scored. Carter Cunningham also extended his hitting streak to 17 with pair of hits and two RBI. Cole Hage tallied the only two hits of the day for Columbia.
Root (3-0) kept the Lions' offense off balance for six scoreless innings, walking just one batter while striking out eight and surrendering just one hit. Joe Sheets (0-3) allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts in the loss.
Ryley Johnson led off the game with a single up the middle and Cunningham followed by working a walk on a 3-2 count to put ECU in early position to claim the lead. A fielder's choice moved Johnson to third, but a strikeout and fly ball to center left him stranded.
The Pirates manufactured the first run of the day in the bottom of the third as Johnson walked to lead off the frame, stole second and eventually scored on a Jacob Jenkins-Cowart groundout. In the home half of the fourth, Joey Berini drew a walk to begin the half inning, advanced to second on a Bristol Carter hit by pitch, got to third on a fly ball out and trotted home via a Williams sacrifice fly to extend the East Carolina advantage to 2-0.
After Carter drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, Williams added to the scoreboard by taking a 1-0 offering and smashing it over the wall in right for a two-run job that made it a 4-0 contest. Cam Clonch then entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with Cunningham and Jacob Starling in scoring position and he delivered a two-run single to left to stretch the margin to six.
Cunningham provided the exclamation mark in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and the bases empty, Johnson collected a walk and Cunningham drove a 1-0 pitch to the deepest part of the park and over the center field wall for his sixth round tripper of the year. Aaron Groller gave up a leadoff single in the top of the ninth but retired the next three batters in order to end the game.
The Pirates (13-4) tossed their third shutout of the season while improving to 8-1 at home. The Lions (3-10) fell for the seventh-straight time with four of those contests occurring against Top 25 squads.
Dixon Williams clubbed his second home run of the year to polish off a 2-for-3 performance that included a trio of runs driven in and a run scored. Carter Cunningham also extended his hitting streak to 17 with pair of hits and two RBI. Cole Hage tallied the only two hits of the day for Columbia.
.@dixonwilliams3 kissed this one goodbye👋🏴☠️
— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) March 16, 2024
4-0 Pirates pic.twitter.com/ZjSYli6kv9
Root (3-0) kept the Lions' offense off balance for six scoreless innings, walking just one batter while striking out eight and surrendering just one hit. Joe Sheets (0-3) allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts in the loss.
Ryley Johnson led off the game with a single up the middle and Cunningham followed by working a walk on a 3-2 count to put ECU in early position to claim the lead. A fielder's choice moved Johnson to third, but a strikeout and fly ball to center left him stranded.
The Pirates manufactured the first run of the day in the bottom of the third as Johnson walked to lead off the frame, stole second and eventually scored on a Jacob Jenkins-Cowart groundout. In the home half of the fourth, Joey Berini drew a walk to begin the half inning, advanced to second on a Bristol Carter hit by pitch, got to third on a fly ball out and trotted home via a Williams sacrifice fly to extend the East Carolina advantage to 2-0.
After Carter drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, Williams added to the scoreboard by taking a 1-0 offering and smashing it over the wall in right for a two-run job that made it a 4-0 contest. Cam Clonch then entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with Cunningham and Jacob Starling in scoring position and he delivered a two-run single to left to stretch the margin to six.
Cunningham provided the exclamation mark in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and the bases empty, Johnson collected a walk and Cunningham drove a 1-0 pitch to the deepest part of the park and over the center field wall for his sixth round tripper of the year. Aaron Groller gave up a leadoff single in the top of the ninth but retired the next three batters in order to end the game.
- East Carolina became the first team to hold Columbia scoreless in a game this season.
- Root and Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman combined for 11 strikeouts, marking the 15th time this year that the pitching staff has fanned double-digit batters.
- The Pirates improved to 5-1 when hitting multiple home runs in a game.
- ECU put five of its eight leadoff batters on base and was 5-for-11 (.455) with two outs on the board.
- Root lowered his season earned run average to 1.21 and has registered 39 strikeouts against just five walks in 29.2 innings of work.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Root, Zach (3-0)
L: Sheets, Joe (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Hage, Cole 1
SH: Jeon, Eric 1
Base Running:
PO: Hage, Cole 1
Batting:
2B: Cunningham, Carter 1 ; McCrystal, Ryan 1
HR: Cunningham, Carter 1 ; Williams, Dixon 1
RBI: Cunningham, Carter 2 ; Jenkins-Cowart, Jacob 1 ; Clonch, Cam 2 ; Williams, Dixon 3
SF: Williams, Dixon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Johnson, Ryley 2 ; Cunningham, Carter 2 ; Starling, Jacob 1 ; Berini, Joey 1 ; Carter, Bristol 1 ; Williams, Dixon 1
SB: Johnson, Ryley 2 ; Jenkins-Cowart, Jacob 1 ; Starling, Jacob 1 ; Carter, Bristol 2
HBP: Starling, Jacob 1 ; Carter, Bristol 1
PO: Cunningham, Carter 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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OF
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RHP
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