By Staff
Staff, Wire Reports
GREENVILLE — The No. 23 East Carolina Pirates rallied from an 8-1 deficit to take a 10-8 lead on UNC-Wilmington Wednesday evening. However, the Seahawks had a rally of their own, scoring five times in the eighth inning and going on to take a 15-13 victory at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The loss for the Pirates (17-9), coming in front of over 3,500 fans, snapped an eight-game winning streak.
Both teams finished with 16 hits in the slugfest.
Devin Harris (3-5, HR, 5 RBIs) and Cameron Freeman (3-5) led the hitting for the Pirates. Trent Whitehead (2-7, 2B, 2 runs, 2 RBIs), Corey Thompson (2-6), Austin Homan (2-4, 2 RBIs) and Philip Clark (2-5) each had two hits for ECU.
ECU was hurt by four errors.
Wilmington jumped out to the big lead thanks to two runs in the first, one run in the second — which the Pirates matched in the bottom half, and five runs in the third.
The Seahawks chased ECU freshman starter Joseph Hughes (2 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk in one inning) and relievers Brad Mincey (4 runs, 5 hits in one inning) and Patrick Somers (2 runs, 3 hits, 1 walk in one inning) in the process.
The Pirates began their rally by scoring twice in the third inning, three times in the fourth and four times in the fifth.
Whitehead, a former Washington Pam Pack star, got things rolling in the fifth with an RBI double. Whitehead later scored on Zach Wright’s single. Harris smashed a two-run double to give ECU a 10-8 advantage.
Reliever Shawn Armstrong gave ECU the chance to come back thanks to three innings of one-hit ball.
Wilmington, led by Michael Rooney (2-4, 4 RBIs, 3 runs) scored once in the seventh off Seth Maness to pull within 10-9.
Harris smashed a solo shot in a two-run bottom half to push ECU’s lead to 12-9.
However, Wilmington scored five times in the eighth off Kevin Brandt (4 runs, 2 hits, 2 walks in 2/3 of an inning) and loser Seth Simmons (1-1) to take a 14-12 lead.
Wilmington tacked on another run in the top of the ninth for a 15-12 advantage.
The Pirates open Conference USA play Friday at home against Tulane. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.