GREENVILLE — Backed by a thorough offensive performance and an ace-like outing from Evan Kruczynski, the East Carolina baseball team rolled past Longwood for an 11-1 win on opening night.

Kruczynski held the Lancers hitless through the first four and two-thirds innings of work before a quick shot back to the mound, and off his shin, resulted in a C.J. Roth single. It was the only hit the junior would allow in his seven innings of work.

“That was some of the best stuff I’ve had,” Kruczynski said following the win. “I mean, I controlled all four of my pitches, getting the changeup in there and basically that’s all I had to do at the end of the day.”

Six Pirates had RBIs while seven of the nine starters recorded a run. Freshman shortstop Turner Brown had the most notable day at the dish with a 3-for-3 outing, a home run, three RBIs and two runs.

Brown, who was greeted by Garrett Brooks after the win with a shaving cream pie, said he had only hit one home run before in his career when he was a 12-year-old little leaguer.

“I was just looking for a fastball,” Brown said of his two-run home run in the fourth inning that delivered Nelson and himself. “(ECU head) Coach Godwin always tells me to be aggressive so I was trying to be aggressive early in the count. I got a fastball up-and-in and put a good swing on it.”

Fellow freshman Dwanya Williams-Sutton knocked in two runs in the midst of a five-run eighth inning that sealed the game. After two quick outs in the inning, Brown, Parker Lamm, Charlie Yorgen, Brady Lloyd — who replaced Travis Watkins after a double — and Bryce Harman all scored. In total, ECU put up nine two-out runs in the contest.

The Pirates notched 15 hits in the contest, Jeff Nelson was the lone hitless starter, but Godwin said he’ll pay more attention to the runs.

“Eleven runs is really impressive, we always talk about scoring five or more runs,” Godwin said. “Last year, we were 28-1 when we scored five runs or more. So that’s a pretty good indication we need to score five or more runs to win.”

Godwin said he didn’t expect Kruczynski to throw seven innings today, but it was a major benefit to start the season. After Kruczynski was pulled, Godwin turned to freshman Sam Lanier for the eighth inning. Lanier allowed back-to-back hits to the first two batters of the inning and threw two wild pitches. Sammy Miller scored the lone run of the day off a Roth single. After the run came in, he settled in. Lanier got the top two Lancer hitters to pop out to right field before striking out Michael Osinski.

Senior Nick Durazo made quick work in the ninth inning and picked up a strikeout to end the game.