By: Tobey Schulman
NCAA Baseball Recap: ECU 8 – FAU 6
Following their walkoff win against ECU in game two, the Owls had a chance in game three to take a series over the #12 ranked Pirates. FAU would come out scoring early, but ECU’s bats came alive to overtake the Owls, and escape Boca Raton with a series win.
FAU took their late rally from the previous night into game three, when they put up a three spot in the second inning. Jalen DeBose and Spencer Rich would both come in and pick up RBI singles to bring in the initial three runs of the game. ECU would turn to their bullpen early for relief, to limit the damage at three runs in the inning.
ECU’s bats would start to wake up in the third. They got one back off of a Bristol Carter RBI single that scored Joey Berini. That would be all that would come of the Pirates in the third, as Trey Beard would work out of a jam to keep the Owls lead.
ECU would continue to chip away at the Owls lead. Jacob Jenkins-Cowart would single and come around to score off of a Colby Wallace single. Justin Wilcoxen would single to move Wallace to third so he could later score on a sacrifice fly out from Joey Berini to tie the game at 3-3.
ECU’s bats would really come alive in the fifth, as they would retake the lead off of a Carter Cunningham two RBI single. The Pirates would take advantage of defensive mistakes from FAU, and an RBI single from Ryan McCrystal gave ECU a 6-3 lead. ECU would add two more runs to give them an 8-3 lead in the fifth.
The fifth inning rally from the Pirates seemed to make the Owls bats fall flat. All momentum had been completely taken out of the offense, and they were now fighting an extremely uphill battle in the second half of the game.
The middle relief for ECU was dominant but the relief late in the game caused some problems for the Pirates. After Erik Ritchie was unable to get an out, the Owls tallied three runs in the seventh to cut the lead to two going into the eighth.
Danny Trehey came in and shut down the Pirates offense in the eighth and ninth innings. The Owls now had a chance to even the score in the ninth, and potentially win the game and series. The ECU pitching staff held strong however, holding the Owls scoreless in the final frame to secure their series win.
While FAU dropped the series at home, they still managed to take a game from ECU, adding another win over a ranked opponent to their resume. They look to get back on track in Coral Gables, where they take on Miami for the third time for a midweek game on Tuesday.