March 18, 2006
Final Stats
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Dustin Sasser tossed a career-high 8 1/3 innings of scoreless ball en route to his fourth win of the season as the Pirates defeated Marist 7-0 Saturday afternoon at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Jake Smith's double to right-center field in the bottom of the first gave the Pirates (15-6) an early 2-0 lead and set the tone for the rest of the game. Jay Mattox led off the inning with a single up the middle followed by Dale Mollenhauer's double with no outs before Smith picked up his 28th and 29th RBI of the season. Adam Witter singled to right field to advance Smith to third and extend his hitting streak to seven games.
Jake Dean continued the Pirate scoring with his ground out to Kyle Meyer plating Smith. Sophomore Harrison Eldridge capped off the bottom of the first with his second home run of the season and series, a two-run bomb to right field, to extend the Pirate lead to 5-0.
Sasser allowed just three hits on the afternoon mowing down five Marist (4-9) batters, which tied a season-high, and allowed three walks. Freshman Michael Hill made his fourth appearance on the season when he came in to relieve Sasser in the bottom of the eighth for 2/3 innings of work.
At the plate, ECU banged out 12 hits getting two each from Mattox, Mollenhauer, Witter and Jamie Ray, who recorded his first multi-hit performance of the season. A trio of Pirates drove in two runs each on the day in Smith, Witter and Eldridge.
The Pirates made quick work of Bobby Hastry as he lasted just one inning giving up five runs on seven hits for his third loss of the season. Josh Rickards came in relief of Hastry throwing five innings allowing a pair of runs on four hits. Rob Glowacki wrapped up the final two frames allowing one hit in eight batters faced.
Marist was only able to collect four hits in the game with Justin Lepore leading the way with two. Pat Feeney and Keith Glasser were the other two Red Foxes to collect a hit.
The Pirates added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth when Witter doubled down the right field line scoring Ryan Wood and Mollenhauer to put ECU up 7-0.
ECU and Marist will play the final game of the three-game series Sunday afternoon starting at 1 p.m.
