East Carolina Tops Memphis 3-2 In AAC Opener

Friday, March 21

Greenville, N.C.

6:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

13-9, 1-0

Memphis

11-10, 0-1

Memphis

East Carolina

March 21, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Five-time defending American Athletic Conference regular season champion East Carolina began the hunt for another league title on a high note Friday night, winning a 3-2 thriller over Memphis inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The Pirates (13-9, 1-0 AAC) utilized a strong start by reigning AAC Pitcher of the Week Ethan Norby and some early offense to seize control before turning it over to Ethan Young who covered the final 3.2 innings without allowing a run and striking out five against no walks to cement his second save of the campaign.

Norby (3-2) allowed just two earned runs in 5.1 frames, scattering four hits and striking out five with two walks. Seth Garner (2-2) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts in four innings.

Colby Wallace and Braxton Tramel rapped out a pair of hits each to pace the ECU lineup while Shane Cox collected two hits, a run scored and an RBI for the Tigers (11-10, 0-1 AAC).

DIESEL. 🔥 @ethanyoung1

Pirates Win! pic.twitter.com/1AmINGpjVr
— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) March 22, 2025

Norby worked around an error to post a scoreless top of the first before Braden Burress drilled a 1-0 pitch into the left center gap for a leadoff double in the home half of the frame. A groundout moved him to third and he would score via a Walker Barron RBI groundout to leave the Pirates ahead 1-0 through one complete.

Memphis grabbed a brief 2-1 advantage thanks to a duo of solo home runs in the second and fourth innings, but East Carolina responded with a two spot in the bottom of the fourth to snag the lead for good. Wallace took the first pitch of the half inning to the wall in center field for a leadoff double, advanced to third on a fly out to right and scored on an Alex Bouche single into right center. Tramel followed with a single of his own to get Bouche 90 feet away and Alex Peltier drove a ball far enough into left field for a sacrifice fly which turned out to be the decisive RBI in the contest.

The Tigers looked to rally in the top of the ninth as Justin Fogel and Cox hit consecutive seeing-eye singles through the infield to begin the frame. Young mustered up a strikeout for the first out and induced a ground ball out to first that moved the runners into scoring position. The junior then got ahead of Cade Greer 0-2 before unleashing a breaking ball that was swung on and missed to end the night.

East Carolina won its American Athletic Conference opener for the first time since 2021 which is also the last time the Pirates began league play at home.
ECU converted all three of its opportunities with a runner on third and less than outs while holding Memphis to 0-for-5 efficiency with runners in scoring position.
The Pirates picked up their 11th-straight victory over Memphis and improved to 50-19 in the all-time series.
The East Carolina pitching staff struck out double-digit batters for the 11th time this season.
Burress extended his hitting streak to six games while Dixon Williams reached base for the 18th-straight contest.

Up Next: ECU looks to cement its first AAC series victory of the year when it faces Memphis Saturday at 4 p.m.