ECU Takes No Prisoners, beats Florida 11-6 in Regional Opener

No. 3  East Carolina boarded the No. 2 Florida Gators‘ ship, took no prisoners, and beat them 11-6 on Friday. East Carolina was firing from all cylinders in game one of the Conway regional – at the plate and on the mound. 

A poor start doomed the Gators and left them in a hole to deep to dig out of, which ultimately cost them. The ECU Pirates ambushed Florida with six runs in the first three innings, leaving Florida scrambling for answers, but none were there.

A fear that Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan had coming into this one was ECU’s small ball and run game. Well, it did not take long for those predictions to come true.

Two pitches into the game, Braden Burress laid down a bunt single and stole second. After moving up to third, he scored on a fielder’s choice bunt back to the mound, where Liam Peterson (8-4) flipped the ball back to catcher Brody Donay in time, but Donay dropped it – making it 1-0 ECU.

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The inning continued with a single to load the bases and a sacrifice fly to bring in another Pirates’ run to make it 2-0.

“We knew before [Florida] played that was [East Carolina] game. Right out of the shoot they bunted for a hit, we were a little slow off the shoot, then couldn’t finish the play at home later on. Don’t know what happened there,” said assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman. 

Pressure from the purple and gold carried into the second inning with three straight one-out singles to load the bases and knock Peterson out of the game. Peterson’s final line was 1.1 IP, five hits, four runs, two earned runs, and a strikeout.

“Was just behind the counts all the time. Didn’t have the opportunity to get his feet underneath [Liam Peterson], when you get behind in counts it gets easy to hit,” said Jeroloman.

Luke McNeillie took over on the mound for Florida and gave up a sacrifice fly to drive in another run. John Collins hit the fourth single of the inning to bring in the fourth ECU run.

McNeillie allowed two more runs in the third before getting pulled. Blaine Rowland was the next Gators’ pitcher to take the mound and like the rest, ran into trouble. Rowland gave up three runs on three hits including back-t0-back doubles that made it 9-0.

Caden McDonald was the fourth Gator pitcher to toe the rubber, and the only one to record a scoreless inning. But in the sixth, Austin Irby got the inning going with a leadoff homer that gave ECU its 10th run of the game. Irby terrorized Florida pitching all day long – going 4-for-5 with a home run and a double, along with three RBIs.

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While the ECU offense fired the cannons, starting pitcher Ethan Norby (8-5) had Florida hitters walking the plank. Coach Cliff Godwin sent his ace to the mound on Friday and he delivered with an impressive 7.1 IP, six hits, three runs (all earned), and 10 strikeouts. 

Florida did not record a hit until a fourth-inning Brendan Lawson home run. Later in that inning, Blake Cyr hit one out that made it 9-2 at the time. After giving up a pair of homers, Norby settled back in and blanked the Gators over the next three innings.

Norby could not finish the eighth after Lawson singled to put runners at the corners. Ty Evans made it an 11-3 game with an RBI single, but that was all. 

Something positive that they can take heading into Saturday’s elimination game will be the offensive momentum built in the ninth. With two outs and nobody on, Florida could have just rolled over, but they kept fighting.

A walk and a single brought Bobby Boser to the plate, where he smashed a three-run homer that made it 11-6. 

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“You always want to build momentum into the next day, no matter what the scoreboard is. [Florida] could have done a better job, as we all feel like against [Ethan] Norby. You know it’s baseball man, this thing could flip, we’ve been in this situation a bunch of times before,” said Jeroloman. “Getting those runs late, hopefully offensively, that’ll get us some confidence rolling into tomorrow.”

With the loss, Florida enters the losers bracket, where they will now need to win four games in three days to clinch the regional. They will play the winner of Coastal Carolina and Fairfield at noon ET on Saturday.

“Our backs are all the way against the wall. Lose one more, and our season’s over, so they’ll be ready to fight,” said Jeroloman.

With its season on the line, Florida will turn to freshman starting pitcher Aidan King (6-2, 2.76 ERA), which was confirmed postgame by Kevin O’Sullivan via Gator Country’s Nick Marcinko.