By MALCOLM GRAY

ECU Athletic Media Relations

 

GREENVILLE — Cole Hallum’s grand slam in the sixth inning highlighted a six-run frame that lifted Campbell to a 9-4 win over East Carolina Tuesday night at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win the Camels improve to 14-2 on the season extending their current win streak to 11 games, while the Pirates fall to 9-6 snapping their home win streak at eight games.

Trailing 3-1 in the sixth inning, Campbell batted around, scoring six runs on four hits and capitalizing on one Pirate fielding miscue to take a 7-3 lead. From there, the Camels never looked back. With one out in the frame, six-straight batters reached base, starting with Cedric Mullins’ double to left center. Steven Leonard was hit by a Jimmy Boyd pitch and Anthony Lopez loaded the bases with an infield single to short. Kyle Leady followed with an RBI single and Seth LaRue reached on a fielder’s choice, which knotted the game at three-all.

LaRue’s ball was the turning point of the game as Hunter Allen was charged with a fielding error on a potential double-play ball. The inning continued and two batters later, Hallum smacked his fifth home run of the season clearing the bases with a shot over the wall in left center.

Coley Thompkins (3-0) picked up the win in relief working four innings, where he allowed one round (earned) on four hits. Starter Grant Yost surrendered three runs (two earned) on 11 hits in four innings, while Bobby Thorson worked a scoreless ninth.

Boyd (1-3) took the loss giving up seven runs (six earned) on eight hits in six frames with two strikeouts. Evan Voliva (0.2 IP, 1 R) and Cam Snow (0.1 IP) worked the seventh, while Luke Bolka (2 H, 1 R) and Mason Keen pitched the eighth and ninth innings.

Prior to the Campbell’s six-run inning, ECU had a chance to break the game open when it had bases loaded in the fifth and no outs. With Eric Tyler on first, Luke Lowery on second and Bryce Harman standing on third, Travis Watkins lined into a double play with a shot to Lopez at short, who threw over to second, forcing Lowery for the second out. Reid Love stepped to the plate with runners on the corners, but grounded out to short to end the threat.

ECU jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second stanza. Three consecutive one-out singles by Love, Kirk Morgan and Allen in the second loaded the bases for Parker Lamm, who pushed across Love with a sac fly to center. On the same play, Mullins was charged with a throwing error trying to get the ball into the infield allowing Morgan to score as well.

Tyler’s RBI single in the third scored Harman making it a 3-0 game. Harman doubled to right field to start the inning and took third on Lowery’s fly ball to center.

LaRue plated Campbell’s first run in the fourth on a RBI base knock to left field scoring Mullins and cutting ECU’s lead to two, 3-1.

After a Campbell run in the seventh, Lowery pulled ECU within four, 8-4, blasting his fifth homer of the season on a solo shot to left field. The Camels would extend their lead with another run in the eighth, capping the scoring a 9-4.

ECU pounded out 16 hits on the night, getting three hits apiece from Harman and Lowery, while Morgan, Tyler and Watkins each added two. All nine Pirate starters had at least one hit in the game with Charlie Yorgen extending his hit streak to nine and his reaching base streak to 15 games.

The Pirates will be back in action Wednesday, Mar. 11 when they play host to UNC Greensboro at 3 p.m. (ET). Game time was moved up due to potential rain in the area later in the evening. ECU will send LHP Nick Durazo (0-0, 0.00 ERA/6 games) to the mound against RHP Daniel Dulaney (0-1, 10.12 ERA/4 games).