GREENVILLE — In a series in which both East Carolina and Connecticut entered in a four-way tie for first in the American Athletic Conference, it was the Pirates that ultimately remained atop the standings after the three-game weekend.

The Pirates (31-18, 11-7 AAC) capped the weekend and put themselves in the driver’s seat in the standings after a 5-2 win over the Huskies (29-10, 8-10 AAC) in the series finale rubber-match on Sunday.

“We’re playing for a championship,” head coach Cliff Godwin said after Sunday’s win. “I’m proud of the guys, they deserve to be in this moment.”

Sunday’s celebratory high fives in front of 3,012 mostly purple and gold clad fans seemed unlikely at first, as ECU suffered a dismal 13-2 loss to the Huskies in the opening game of the series on Friday.

The Pirates were able to rebound and secure the series win thanks to two bounce-back performances and strong pitching from starters Reid Love and Jacob Wolfe en route to 5-4 and 5-2 victories in Games 2 and 3, respectively.

“I thought they pressed on Friday night,” Godwin said. “But I thought they gathered themselves after getting punched in the mouth a little bit and we played well the rest of the weekend.”

After allowing 19 hits and 13 runs in Friday’s blowout, the Pirate arms stymied the UConn offense and allowed just 12 hits through the rest of the weekend, culminated by the Huskies’ three-hit loss on Sunday.

Wolfe, the sophomore lefty, wasted no time dispatching the Huskies thanks to a 1-2-3 first inning, but ran into trouble in the second inning, where he allowed two runs that deadlocked the score at two.

From there, though, Wolfe settled in and allowed just one more hit before being yanked in the eighth inning, having thrown 97 pitches.

“Everything was a little wishy-washy,” Wolfe said of his pitches. “I was doing everything I could to get a ground ball and let my defense work behind me.”

Wolfe’s strong outing capped the series, but the senior Love turned in an impressive performance of his own on Saturday to put the Pirates in a position to win.

Love, trying to avoid a fate similar to Friday starter Evan Kruczynski, one in which the sophomore allowed seven runs on ten hits in just three and two-thirds innings of work, notched a complete-game, 5-4 win, despite running into trouble in the ninth inning with the game on the line.

Three of UConn’s four runs were scored in the ninth after a Vinny Siena three-run home run cut the Husky deficit to one. Love settled in though, and retired UConn, sealing his victory.

“I got a little anxious, I got a little nervous,” Love admitted. “But I finished it off. [Coach Godwin] told me to finish it and get out of this inning and I did.”

Similarly to ECU’s pitching turnaround in the final two games of the series, the Pirate offense had a bounce-back performance of its own.

ECU had just five hits in the first game and was never able to match the Huskies.

Saturday and Sunday saw the Pirates collectively notch 19 hits and 10 runs and sophomore slugger Bryce Harman contributed with his back-to-back home run performances.

“Yesterday hitting that one gave me a lot of confidence,” Harman said on Sunday. “I know I’m a good hitter, it was going to come around sooner or later. I have to stick to the process.”

Senior co-captain Hunter Allen had an impressive offensive weekend as well, notching six hits and two runs, despite an 0-for-4 start to the weekend.

The turnaround was important for the Pirates, as a series loss to the Huskies would no longer allow them to control their own destiny in hopes of winning the conference.

“It shows how strong we are as a team,” Wolfe said of overcoming the Game 1 loss. “We play as a team we win as a team that’s how it is.”