By Staff
ECU Sports Information
GREENVILLE — Dustin Harrington homered in his third consecutive game and Zach Wright belted a grand slam as No. 25 East Carolina cruised to its fourth straight win Wednesday night at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium with a 15-6 victory over in-state foe N.C. A&T.
Harrington, who is batting .750 in his last three games, continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-5 performance including a three-run bomb in the third that put the game out of reach.
Wright started the fireworks in the first when he took a 2-1 offering from Nick Oelker over the right field wall giving the Pirates and early 5-0 lead. Devin Harris, who was 2-for-4 with three RBI, plated the first run of the game on a single to left that scored Harrington after he doubled with one out. Roller followed Harrington at-bat with first of two free passes on the night and John Wooten loaded the bases for Wright when Oelker drilled him with an off-speed pitch.
Corey Thompson’s single up the middle scored Trent Whitehead to give ECU a 6-0 lead. Whitehead walked with one out and raced to third on Roller’s single to center before crossing home in the second inning.
ECU starter Zach Woods improved to 3-1 on the year after allowing six runs (three earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.
With two outs in the bottom half of the third, ECU broke the game open pushing across six runs to take a commanding 12-1 lead. Jared Avchen and Cam Freeman received free passes and Whitehead, who was three for his last 25, singled to center driving in Avchen for the game-winning run. Harrington stepped up to the plate and uncorked a shot to left clearing the bases.
The Pirates continued their two-out scoring in the third on Wooten’s two-RBI single up the middle that scored both Roller and Thompson.
The Pirates will be back in action this weekend when they host N.C. Central in a three-game non-conference series, which will start at 7 p.m. on Friday night.