GREENVILLE — It was an opening series to forget for the East Carolina (0-3) baseball team, as No.2 Virginia (3-0) completed the sweep after it took both ends of Saturday’s double-header.

The Cavaliers picked up where they left off after Friday’s 3-1 victory, drubbing the Pirates in the second game of the series, 9-2, and then capping the sweep with a 4-2 victory in the series finale.

“We played one of the best teams in the country and we competed hard in two of the three games,” said ECU head coach Cliff Godwin. “We know that we can play with those guys.”

ECU was able to stay with the Cavaliers in the third and final game of the series. They took a 2-2 tie into the top of the eighth inning, but Virginia pulled away after scoring two unanswered runs.

Jimmy Boyd, who pitched a scoreless seventh for the Pirates, was handed the loss after he allowed two runs in the eighth inning. Robbie Coman and Matt Thaiss knocked in back-to-back runs for the Cavaliers before Boyd was able to get out of the inning.

Garrett Brooks and Kirk Morgan knocked in both of ECU’s Game 3 runs. Brooks, who finished the game with two hits, hit second baseman Charlie Yorgen home in the second inning after the Cavaliers took an early 2-0 lead. The Pirates struck again when Kirk Morgan pushed home Parker Lamm in the fifth inning to tie the game.

“We just simplified our approach and went to our two-strike approach,” said Yorgen. “They threw a lot of off-speed pitches and we just didn’t let the off-speed pitches beat us in the second game.”

David Lucroy, who was originally slated as a reliever, was forced into the rotation because of pitcher Reid Love’s hand injury sustained back in January. In the finale, he pitched five and one-thirds strong innings and allowed just four hits and two runs.

Unlike last season where the then-sophomore struggled with his command, Lucroy was in control of the game, walking just two batters and finding his way out of trouble.

But Lucroy had a different assessment of his performance.

“It doesn’t matter to me how my performance was because we lost the game,” he said. “Realistically, I just had to throw better than I did because I didn’t give my team enough of a chance to win.”

ECU’s anemic offense was more to blame than the junior righty. It struggled mightily against the Cavaliers’ pitchers. In total, the Pirates registered just 17 hits and five runs throughout the series. After being unable to figure out Nathan Kirby on Friday, the ECU hitters were once again held in check as Connor Jones and Brandon Waddell allowed just 10 combined hits during their respective starts.

“Connor Jones is really good,” said Godwin. “I’m not giving our hitters and excuse but Connor Jones has major league type stuff. Brandon Waddell left some pitches up and we had a better approach and got some better swings off of him.”

Jones took the mound for Game 2 and consistently threw mid-90s fastballs at ECU hitters. He went six innings and allowed just three hits and no runs.

Pirate pitcher Jacob Wolfe was tasked with countering Jones but due to sloppy defense, he was unable to get out of the fifth inning, having allowed eight runs, six of which were unearned and was charged with the loss.

“I was pretty disappointed that our fans had to watch that,” said Godwin of the team’s five errors in the second game. “We just didn’t play good defense in the first game.”

In the third inning alone, the Pirates committed three errors, two of which were charged to shortstop Hunter Allen, as the Cavaliers scored five runs despite having only one hit in the inning.

“I think it just kind of snowballed,” said Yorgen. “We made one error to start the inning and then had another one the next at bat and then it just kind of snowballed. We have to get better at controlling the damage but we’ll get better with that after this weekend.”

ECU’s loss was its ninth straight to Virginia. The two teams met last season and, much to the same tune, the Pirates were swept in Charlottesville.

“We need to get our stuff together and play better,” said Godwin. “We’re never going to accept losing around here.”