No. 6 East Carolina Falls To Tulane, 6-5

Friday, May 10

New Orleans, La.

7:30 p.m.

East Carolina University

37-11, 0

Tulane

27-23, 0

East Carolina

Tulane Green Wave

May 11, 2024 | Baseball

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. – No. 6 East Carolina dropped its series opener at Tulane by a 6-5 margin Friday night inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

The Green Wave (27-23, 11-11 AAC) outhit the Pirates (37-11, 16-6 AAC) 11-9 and scored five of their six runs with two swings of the bat.

Jacob Moore (4-3) picked up the win by recording the final out of the top of the ninth inning. Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman (3-2) was tagged with the loss after allowing the winning run in the home half of the frame.

Jacob Starling paced the ECU offense with three hits and a trio of RBI while Connor Rasmussen was 3-for-5 with a run scored and three RBI.

East Carolina struck for the initial run of the contest in the top of the first. With one away, Carter Cunningham drew a walk on a full count, stole second and scored on a Jacob Starling single. Brady Marget registered the first hit of the game for Tulane in the home half of the frame with two outs, but Trey Yesavage answered with a looking strikeout to leave him stranded.

Marcus Cline worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the second and the Green Wave capitalized as James Agabedis III connected on a 1-1 offering and clubbed it over the wall in right field to put his team ahead 2-1. The Pirates attempted to answer with two away in the top of the third as Jacob Jenkins-Cowart reached on an error and Starling singled through the left side, but a strikeout would terminate the frame.

The home side surged ahead in the bottom of the fourth. A Cline walk and Colin Tuft single to lead off the half inning put Tulane in business. Following a sacrifice bunt that pushed the runners in scoring position, Yesavage fanned Jackson Linn looking. Rasmussen then battled to a double-digit pitch at bat before driving a fastball out of the park in right to establish a 5-1 Green Wave advantage.

ECU put together a big rally in the top of the fifth as Berini singled up the middle and Ryley Johnson reached on an infield hit to give the Pirates some traffic on the bases. Berini would reach third on a throwing error on Johnson's knock and score via a Cunningham RBI single to slice the deficit to three. Starling then took the first pitch of his at bat and roped it to right field for a two-run single before Jenkins-Cowart scored on a rundown situation to pull the Purple and Gold even at five.

Tulane loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth in an attempt to grab a late advantage, but Erik Ritchie was up to the task with Marget at the dish, inducing a 6-4-3 double play to escape the jam. The Green Wave would cash in a leadoff triple in the bottom of the ninth as a hit by pitch, intentional walk and additional hit batter plated the winning tally.

East Carolina dropped to 13-7 in true road games as well as 6-4 in league away contests.
Of the Pirates' 11 losses, eight have occurred by one run.
ECU held Tulane to one hit with runners in scoring position as the teams combined to leave 18 runners on base.
The Green Wave posted five two-out RBI.
The Pirates lead UTSA by two games for first place in the AAC standings with five contests remaining for both teams.

Up Next: East Carolina and Tulane continue the series Saturday at 7:30 p.m.