East Carolina Polishes Off Series Sweep Of Rice

Sunday, March 30

Houston, Texas

2:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

18-10, 0

Rice

6-23, 0

ECU

RICE

March 30, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Early offense and more solid bullpen work allowed East Carolina to put the wraps on an American Athletic Conference series sweep of host Rice Sunday afternoon as the Pirates knocked off the Owls 8-5 at Reckling Park.

ECU (18-10, 6-0 AAC) remains the lone unbeaten side in the league standings and holds a one-game lead over South Florida and UTSA after two rounds of conference play. Rice (6-23, 1-5 AAC) dropped to 4-13 at home and have lost five of their last six decisions.

Brad Pruett (2-2) picked up his second victory of the campaign, tossing four innings and giving up just two earned runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Colby Wallace nailed down his second save as well, covering the final 0.2 frames and stranding the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.

The Pirates were quite methodical in victory, tying a single-game school record with seven sacrifice bunts which they last did against James Madison back on May 17, 1987, en route to winning the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. Austin Irby and Walker Barron rapped out two hits apiece while Irby added a pair of RBI to his ledger. Landon West and Tobias Motley paced the home club with three hits each.

#2WayU is alive and well as starting 3B @Cwall31_ takes the bump to get the final two outs to complete the sweep https://t.co/Nc43bb8gGP pic.twitter.com/sYU4CJvGo5
— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) March 30, 2025

East Carolina jumped out to an early advantage with single tallies in the first three innings before putting up a two spot in the fourth. Jack Herring sparked the rally in the half inning with a leadoff walk and moved to second on an Alex Bouche sac bunt. Then, with two away, Braden Burress drove him home with a single to left to make it 4-0 and Wallace roped an RBI double down the left field line to plate Buress for a 5-0 Pirate edge.

The Owls got right back into it with a two out, three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, but ECU outscored Rice 3-2 over the next four innings to carry a three-run cushion into the bottom of the ninth. Consecutive one-out singles brought the tying run to the plate and Blaine Brown drew a walk to load the bases with two outs. Wallace was up to the task, finishing off the Owls by inducing a routine fly ball to right.

East Carolina registered its 22nd sweep in AAC play since the start of the 2018 campaign as well as its first ever sweep of Rice at Reckling Park. The Pirates have also won eight straight in the all-time series.
ECU collected 10 hits for the fourth time in their last five outings and the 12th time this season.
The Pirates put six of their leadoff batters on base and were 6-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
Dixon Williams and Burress kept their on base streaks alive at 24 and 16 games respectively.

Up Next: East Carolina begins a five-game week Tuesday, April 1st, with its second meeting of the season with UNCW. First serve at Brooks Field in Wilmington is scheduled for 6 p.m.