ECU hangs on to take series against Memphis

Published 9:12 pm Sunday, May 14, 2017

GREENVILLE — Turner Brown singled back up the middle to score Charlie Yorgen, breaking a two-all tie to give East Carolina a 3-2 win and series victory over Memphis. Tiger reliever Blake Bennett gave up a single to Yorgen and intentionally walked Kirk Morgan before handing the ball over to Alex Hicks.

Hicks walked Travis Watkins to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the 11th. Brown knocked the game-winning hit on a full count to give the Pirates just their second one-run win of the season, and their first in over two months.

“It’s a lot of toughness,” coach Cliff Godwin said, highlighting all the bumps and bruises his players are dealing with late in the season. “Physically and mentally, this season has been tough on them. A lot of teams would have folded. These guys are continuing to fight to the last strike and the last out.”

Mental fortitude has been a problem area for what is an experienced ECU club. The Pirates (27-25, 6-15 American Athletic Conference) still sit at the bottom of the league standings — just beneath Memphis (27-25, 7-14 AAC) — but showed plenty of that elusive resilience.

“It feels incredible for us to come out and battle like that,” Eric Tyler said. The Pirate third baseman extended his on-base streak to 38 games in a row after a ninth-inning single. “It wasn’t an easy game whatsoever. We showed a lot of heart bouncing back from (Saturday). … That’s our brand of baseball right there. That’s what we’ve played the last three years.”

Memphis took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Tyler Webb scored on Zach Schritenthal’s base hit to left field. Jake Agnos rebounded nicely, though, as he retired the side in order in the next two frames. The Pirate starter gave up that one run on four hits and two walks in his five innings.

ECU’s offense came out and took the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Spencer Brickhouse reached on an error by Schritenthal at second base. Watkins followed with a double to put two Pirates in scoring position with no outs. Both came across on sacrifice flies from Brown and Drew Henrickson.

Sam Lanier relieved Agnos come the top of the sixth. His afternoon didn’t last long as he had a strikeout sandwiched between a pair of singles, then walked Alec Trela to load the bases with one out. Matt Bridges took the mound in a precarious position, but got a strikeout and induced a fly out to leave all three Tiger runners on.

Bridges showed flashes of the brilliance he displayed last year as a freshman. He allowed one baserunner the seventh and another in the eighth before running into trouble in the top of the ninth. He walked the first two Memphis batters, and a sac-bunt put the go-ahead and winning runs in scoring position.

Tennessee native Wes Covington came in for Bridges. He gave up an RBI single to Webb that plated Taylor Bobo for the tying run, but induced a double play to Brown at shortstop to minimize the damage. Covington earned the win after allowing just one more hit and fanning two over the last 2 2/3 innings of the game.

The Pirates scored nine runs in the sixth inning to cruise to an 11-4 win in the series opener Friday. Freshman Spencer Brickhouse belted a pair of solo home runs, and Tyler belted a three-run shot in the middle of that explosive sixth frame.

ECU’s bats were quiet as Memphis had a burst of its own to tie the set on Saturday. Chris Carrier had a three-run homer of his own as the Tigers scored seven runs between the third and fourth in a 7-3 win. The Pirates didn’t score until they notched three runs in the eighth.

ECU will host Campbell for its home finale Tuesday before hitting the road for its final conference series at Connecticut next weekend.