Troy tops East Carolina, 8-2

Pirates have three-game win streak snapped by Trojans

East Carolina’s spring break trip to Alabama started on a sour note on Wednesday evening, as the Pirates fell behind Troy, 6-0, through two innings before suffering an 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Trojans.

The Pirates (8-3), who are ranked 29th in this week’s Perfect Game poll while receiving votes in most others, saw their offensive woes continue. East Carolina, which has scored just 17 runs in its last seven games and has not plated more than four in any of those contests, had just three hits on the night.

Troy (7-5) took a 1-0 advantage in its first at-bat. The Trojans’ Jo-El Bennett walked with one out, advanced to second on a balk, and scored on clean-up hitter Danny Collins’ two-out single to center.

The Trojans took advantage of East Carolina starter Austin Chrismon and his command issues in the following frame.

The Pirates’ sophomore righty got Austin Golden to pop up for the second out of the inning after surrendering a one-out double to Tyler Vaughn. From that point, things fell apart. Chrismon walked Harrell before allowing a two-run double to Clay Holcomb. He proceeded to issue a base on balls to Jo-El Bennett and was promptly lifted from the game in favor of reliever Joseph Hughes.

However, Hughes’ command was also absence, as he plunked the first two batters he faced to make it 4-0 before giving up a two-run single to Logan Pierce that extended the Pirates’ deficit to six.

Hughes lasted just 1.2 innings after walking one and hitting three.

ECU couldn’t manage much against Troy starter Cass Abercrombie, but it did muster two runs. The Pirates hoped for a big inning after loading the bases with no outs, but had to settle for run-scoring groundouts by Chase McDonald and Jay Cannon.

Troy did more two-out damage in the fourth and sixth innings by tacking on single runs in each frame.

Billy Godwin opted to get some of the less experienced members of his bullpen some mound time the rest of the way.

Thomas Austin replaced Abercrombie, who allowed just two runs on three hits in six strong innings of work, before the seventh. Austin, Hill, and Workman all worked a hitless inning of relief for Troy.

Danny Collins led the Trojans with his 2-for-3, three-rbi night at the plate. Holcomb and Pierce also drove in two runs each for Troy.

East Carolina will resume action on Friday night when it faces host Alabama in the DRASH Alabama Baseball Classic. First-pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

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