GREENVILLE — Despite winning the first game of the weekend, East Carolina fell two games to one against Memphis at Clark-LeClair Stadium in its first ever American Athletic Conference series.

The Pirates looked to be in control in the rubber match on Sunday, holding a 2-0 lead going into the seventh inning, but starter David Lucroy got into trouble and loaded the bases. Reliever Reid Love came into the game and after inducing a groundout, Memphis’s Darien Tubbs hit an inside-the-park home run with help from ECU center fielder Garrett Brooks, who misjudged the ball.

The miscalculation not only gave the Tigers a 4-2, which they would hold until the final out, but it gave Memphis the series win, as both teams split Saturday’s doubleheader.

“It’s about how to win baseball games and they have to go do it,” Godwin said. “You have to know how to make clutch plays, clutch pitches, clutch at bats. You have to want to be in those situations.”

After the Pirates picked up a 4-1 win in the first game of the series, Memphis bounced back and picked up a 3-2 win over the Pirates in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Much to the same tune as the first and third game in the series, Game 2 was a low scoring matchup that featured minimal offense from both teams.

Memphis came into the series as one of the lowest scoring teams in the conference, but the Pirates, despite being in a slump offensively, ranked second in the AAC at the plate.

The offensive struggles that have haunted the Pirates since the Virginia Commonwealth series last weekend followed ECU into the Memphis series, the Pirates collecting just 19 hits over the three-game weekend. Love’s four-hit performance, which propelled ECU to a 4-1 win in Game 1, was the only occasion in which a Pirate batter had multiple hits in a game.

“We just have to worry about quality at bats and squaring the ball up,” said shortstop Hunter Allen, who is playing through a torn ligament in his thumb. “We just have to put balls in play and get things going again.”

Both teams combined to tally 13 hits in the series finale and every Pirate batter failed to notch more than one hit in the game. It was not unlike the other two games in the series, in fact, it was nearly identical.

In the first and second games, both teams collected a combined 13 hits and five runs. In the third and final game, the teams registered a collective 12 hits and six runs.

The lack of offense played right into the hands of the Tigers, as Memphis relied heavily on quality pitching, especially in its bullpen. In the third game alone, the Tigers called on four different pitchers to help carry them to victory.

“We have to relax really, we’re getting too tight,” Love said after Sunday’s loss. “We’re not relaxing and letting the play come to us. It’s frustrating.”

In the first game of the series, the Pirates were aided by sophomore southpaw Evan Kruczynski’s complete game victory as ECU rolled to a 4-1 win. Following the ace Kruczynski’s characteristically good outing, Memphis would stymie the Pirate lineup and find itself as weekend victors.

“We were rolling so good against Elon and then hit a little road bump against VCU,” Kruczynski said following his complete game win on Saturday. “I think the guys are pressing a little bit.”