GREENVILLE — A revamped approach to hitting Rice pitching made sure there would not be another 18-strikeout performance by the East Carolina batters on Saturday. However, the Pirates still could not produce enough runs to take down the Conference USA rival Owls as they fell 5-3 in 10 innings.

On Friday, Rice pitchers Austin Kubitza and Tony Cingrani carved up the ECU lineup as it won 2-1 in the first game of the three-game series.

Refusing to let that happen again, the Pirates (21-10, 3-5) looked to make the Owls pitchers throw more fastballs, and while the ECU hitters were more productive Saturday than they were on Friday, they still could not produce a win.

“I got to give credit to the Rice pitching staff, obviously they found our weakness,” East Carolina catcher Zach Wright said. “They have been throwing a lot of curveballs when they are up in the count and we’ve been swinging at them. Coach (Billy Godwin) has been telling us to see the pitches and really hunt that fastball and we haven’t done that. We have had (10) hits in the last two days and it’s all because we can’t see the curveball, myself included.”

Godwin felt his team took a step in the right direction on Saturday, but acknowledged the need for his hitters to improve their approach against the Owls (23-12, 6-2).

“We forced some pressure and (Rice) made a few mistakes early and it’s all because we did a better job putting the ball in play and making things happen,” Godwin said. “When they get ahead and get two strikes they are going to bury that breaking ball in the dirt; you can best believe that. We have to have a little bit more of a disciplined approach to lay off of it. I did think (our approach) was better today.”

The Pirates jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, despite not having a hit up to that point, when John Wooten’s grounder to Rice starter Mathew Reckling landed him on third base after two Owls’ errors. Austin Homan would give ECU a 1-0 lead when his ground out to second allowed Wooten to score. The Pirates took a 2-0 lead when Corey Thompson drew a bases loaded walk that scored Jack Reinheimer, who along with Drew Reynolds and Ben Fultz, reached base on a walk. The inning ended when pitcher Tyler Spurling, who came in for Reckling after the walk to Thompson, was able to get Trent Whitehead to ground out to second.

East Carolina would record its first hit of the game the following inning when Wright led off with a double and advanced to third when right fielder Ryan Lewis bobbled the ball before throwing it back into the infield. The Pirates second hit of the game immediately after that when John Wooten hit and RBI single.

Holding a 3-0 lead, the Pirates looked to be in good position as starter Michael Wright (7 1-3, 3 ER, 7 H, 6 K, 1 BB) zipped through the Owls lineup, allowing only one run until he entered the top of the eighth where Rice rallied to tie the game.

Wright allowed two singles that were sandwiched between an out, and was removed in favor of closer Seth Simmons after the second base hit. Simmons (1 2/3 2 H, 2 R) came on to face J.T. Chargois, who smashed a booming two-run triple to tie the game.

The score would stay at 3-3 until the top of the 10th where an error by ECU second baseman Tim Younger allowed Rice’s Keenan Cook to reach first to start the inning. Cook would advance to third on a Simmons wild pitch that also happened to walk Chargois. The Pirates opted to intentionally walk slugger Anthony Rendon in the next at-bat. Rice would take its first lead of the game when Simmons walked Michael Ratterree with the bases loaded. ECU brought in reliever Brad Mincey in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but he let up an RBI single to Craig Manuel for the game’s final run.

Simmons (4-1) would be credited with is first loss of the season.

In the Pirates final at-bat, a Chris Gossik pinch hit single was all they could muster before recording three consecutive outs.

East Carolina will play the final game of the series today at 10:30 p.m.

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