Florida Atlantic Downs East Carolina, 6-5

Saturday, April 6

Boca Raton, Fla.

4:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

22-7, 0

Florida Atlantic

18-10, 0

East Carolina

Florida Atlantic

April 06, 2024 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BOCA RATON, Fla. – No. 12 East Carolina rapped out 14 hits Saturday but left 11 runners on base as Florida Atlantic rallied late to win a 6-5 decision at the FAU Baseball Stadium.

The Pirates (22-7, 5-3 AAC) will look to secure their seventh series win of the season in Sunday's rubber game which is scheduled for Noon. The Owls (18-10, 5-3 AAC) improved to 15-5 at home with the walk-off victory.

Carter Cunningham went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI while four other ECU players registered two hits apiece. Spencer Rich paced FAU with a three-hit performance, accounting for half of his team's base knocks.

Danny Trehey (2-1) picked up the win in relief, throwing a perfect top of the ninth with two strikeouts. Danny Beal (3-2) was tagged with the loss after allowing two runs on two hits in 2.1 innings of work.

Cunningham sparked an early offensive charge in the top of the first with a one out double that snuck inside the right field line. Wallace followed with a single to right that plated Cunningham for a 1-0 Pirate advantage. McCrystal moved Wallace to third with an infield single before Murphy induced a pop up to second to end the frame.

With two outs in the bottom of the third and the bases clean, Jalen Debose singled up the middle then scored on a Rich single to knot the score at one. A Dixon Williams bunt single allowed Bristol Carter to score with two away in the top of the fourth and put East Carolina back ahead, but the Owls came up with three runs in the home half of the inning to grab the lead back. Emilio Gonzalez tied the game with an RBI groundout before Dylan LaPointe hit a two out, two-run home run to make it 4-2.

Justin Wilcoxen clubbed a first-pitch long ball to lead off the sixth inning and draw the Pirates within 4-3 and Cunningham delivered a two-out RBI single that scored Joey Berini to knot the score once more. Williams, Cunningham and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart all singled in the top of the eighth, the last of which plated Williams to give ECU the upper hand at 5-4. The Pirates wouldn't be able to hold off the home side in the end as FAU plated single runs in the eighth and ninth innings to walk it off via a Rich RBI single.

East Carolina fell to 3-3 all time against Florida Atlantic with all six games having occurred in Boca Raton.
The Pirates' seven losses have come by a combined nine runs as ECU dropped to 4-5 in one-run contests.
Jenkins-Cowart kept his hitting streak alive and extended it to 10 games.
ECU lost for just the third time when registering 10 or more hits in a contest.
East Carolina went 6-for-17 (.353) with runners in scoring position but 0-for-2 with a runner on third and less than two outs.