March 12, 2006

Box Score

CSF 8, ECU 0
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FULLERTON, CALIF. - For the second straight night the East Carolina baseball team was unable to hit Cal State's starting pitching as the Pirates fell 8-0, Saturday evening at Goodwin Field.

Justin Turner led off the bottom of the first with a double to right center and advanced to third when Blake Davis singled to third base to put runners on the corners with no outs. After Pirate starter Dustin Sasser struck out Brett Pill, Jared Clark's sac fly to center scored Turner for the games first run. Bryan Harris singled and Davis advanced to third on a throwing error to set up the Titans second run of the inning, when David scored on a Harris attempted steal of second base which caused the third out.

Cal State (13-6) starting pitcher Lauren Gagnier picked up his fourth win of the season after pitching seven shutout innings and striking out seven batters for the third time this season. Justin Klipp and Ryan Paul combined for two innings of shutout ball allowing just one Pirate hit.

Sasser got the loss on the evening falling to 3-2 on the season after working 3 2/3 innings allowing six runs, five earned, while walking three, striking out three and recording three wild pitches. Kevin Rhodes made his seventh appearance of the season working 2 1/3 innings retiring all eight batters faced. Mike Flye pitched 1/3 innings allowing two earned runs on one hit and freshman Josh Dowdy pitched the final 1 2/3 innings striking out two and allowing one hit.

Three Titans batters (Turner, Davis and Harris) each collected three hits a while Joe Turgeon went 1-for-1 on his pinch hit appearance.

The Pirates (12-5) were only able to collect three hits in the game with Dale Mollenhauer and Adam Witter going 1-for-4 and Jake Dean going 1-for-3 with a double.

In the top of the third, the Pirates Harrison Eldridge reached first after being hit by a Gagnier off speed pitch. After a failed pick off move by Gagnier to first advanced Eldridge to second, Dean followed with a double putting runners on second and third with no outs. Gagnier settled down recording back-to-back strikeouts of Drew Schieber and Jay Mattox before Mollenhauer flew out to center to end the inning.

Cal State plated three runs in the bottom third highlighted two-out triple by Harris that scored two runs. Turner got the scoring going after a hard hit single to shortstop and then advanced on a Sasser wild pitch. Davis singled up the middle scoring Turner making the game 3-0. Davis attempted to steal second, but Jake Smith gunned him down, marking the eleventh would be base stealer that has been caught. Pill and Clark each drew back-to-back walks and scored on Harris' triple.

In the bottom of the seventh Cal State padded their lead on Harris' third hit of the night, a single to right, scoring David and Pill to make the game 8-0.

The Pirates will wrap up the three-game series Sunday afternoon with a 4 p.m. start time scheduled.