Tuesday, May 7
Greenville, N.C.
6:00 p.m.
East Carolina University
37-10
2
vs
5
Duke
33-14
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Duke
2
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
1
5
11
1
East Carolina
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
4
3
No. 9 Duke Downs No. 6 East Carolina, 7-3
May 07, 2024 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. – No. 9 Duke established an early lead with the long ball and held off No. 6 East Carolina by a 5-2 score Tuesday night inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
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The Pirates (37-10) now turn their attention to an American Athletic Conference road series at Tulane this weekend while the Blue Devils (33-14) prepare for an Atlantic Coast Conference set at Georgia Tech.
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Duke out-hit ECU 11-4 and took advantage of a trio of Pirate errors while hitting three home runs. The Blue Devils entered the contest with 85 long balls to their credit.
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Justin Wilcoxen collected a pair of hits and scored two runs to pace the East Carolina offense while Ben Miller and Logan Bravo rapped out two hits each and scored a run apiece for the visitors. Ryan Higgins (2-1) picked up the win in relief, striking out two over 1.1 innings of work before Charlie Beilensen covered the final 2.2 frames to lock down his 10th save of the campaign. Erik Ritchie (1-1) was saddled with the loss, surrendering two runs on two hits with a walk in 1.2 innings.
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Miller gave Duke a 1-0 lead with a one-out solo home run in the top of the first before Bravo reached on an error and AJ Gracia scored from third to make it 2-0 after one complete.
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The Blue Devils extended their lead to four via back-to-back solo blasts in the top of the fourth. ECU attempted to respond in the home half of the frame with two outs as Jacob Starling singled through the left side and Ryan McCrystal drew a walk, but a liner to second terminated the threat.
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East Carolina scratched the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth to reduce its deficit to three. Wilcoxen singled to lead off the inning and Joey Berini followed with a one-out single of his own. Ryley Johnson then reached on a fielder's choice to plate Wilcoxen before a grounder to first represented the final out of the half inning.
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The Pirates created some traffic on the base paths in the latter frames but could not push anything across the plate until Berini scored Wilcoxen on a groundout in the bottom of the ninth to provide the game's final margin.
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The Pirates (37-10) now turn their attention to an American Athletic Conference road series at Tulane this weekend while the Blue Devils (33-14) prepare for an Atlantic Coast Conference set at Georgia Tech.
Â
Duke out-hit ECU 11-4 and took advantage of a trio of Pirate errors while hitting three home runs. The Blue Devils entered the contest with 85 long balls to their credit.
Â
Justin Wilcoxen collected a pair of hits and scored two runs to pace the East Carolina offense while Ben Miller and Logan Bravo rapped out two hits each and scored a run apiece for the visitors. Ryan Higgins (2-1) picked up the win in relief, striking out two over 1.1 innings of work before Charlie Beilensen covered the final 2.2 frames to lock down his 10th save of the campaign. Erik Ritchie (1-1) was saddled with the loss, surrendering two runs on two hits with a walk in 1.2 innings.
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Miller gave Duke a 1-0 lead with a one-out solo home run in the top of the first before Bravo reached on an error and AJ Gracia scored from third to make it 2-0 after one complete.
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The Blue Devils extended their lead to four via back-to-back solo blasts in the top of the fourth. ECU attempted to respond in the home half of the frame with two outs as Jacob Starling singled through the left side and Ryan McCrystal drew a walk, but a liner to second terminated the threat.
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East Carolina scratched the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth to reduce its deficit to three. Wilcoxen singled to lead off the inning and Joey Berini followed with a one-out single of his own. Ryley Johnson then reached on a fielder's choice to plate Wilcoxen before a grounder to first represented the final out of the half inning.
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The Pirates created some traffic on the base paths in the latter frames but could not push anything across the plate until Berini scored Wilcoxen on a groundout in the bottom of the ninth to provide the game's final margin.
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- East Carolina dropped back-to-back games for just the second time all season.
- The Pirates and Blue Devils combined to go 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 21 men on base.
- ECU is now 23-4 at home with four more regular season contests scheduled at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
- East Carolina rapped out a season-low four hits.
- Johnson did not reach base safely for the first time this season, ending an impressive 44-game on base streak.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Higgins, Ryan (2-1)
L: Ritchie, Erik (1-1)
S: Beilenson, Charlie (10)
Batting:
2B: Obee, Devin 1 ; Clark, Wallace 1
HR: Morris, Zac 1 ; Miller, Ben 1 ; Johnson, Kyle 1
RBI: Morris, Zac 1 ; Miller, Ben 1 ; Bravo, Logan 1 ; Clark, Wallace 1 ; Johnson, Kyle 1
SH: Clark, Wallace 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Morris, Zac 1 ; Miller, Ben 1 ; Gracia, AJ 1 ; Bravo, Logan 1 ; Johnson, Kyle 1
CS: Krewson, Chase 1
HBP: Miller, Ben 1 ; Gracia, AJ 1 ; Stone, Alex 1 ; Clark, Wallace 1
Batting:
2B: Wilcoxen, Justin 1
RBI: Johnson, Ryley 1 ; Berini, Joey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilcoxen, Justin 2
SB: Starling, Jacob 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
5
R
0
H
0
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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