Spring Break
ECU falls to No. 1 Rice in closely contested series
Hart Holloman
Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: Sports
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The Pirates went into Sunday's rubber match hoping to take the series off their highly rated opponents, but it was not to be as they lost a heartbreaker that came down to the last out of the game.
ECU went up early by way of a Brandon Henderson solo homer and held that 1-0 lead until the Owls put three runs on the board in the fourth.
Starter Brad Mincey surrendered another run in the top of the sixth and sophomore Sthil Sowers allowed one more in the seventh as Rice stretched its lead to 5-1. Sowers was playing with a heavy heart and wearing the No. 3 in honor of a former high school teammate who was killed in a car accident Friday.
ECU jumped back in the game in the bottom of the eighth when Devin Harris hit his third home run of the weekend, a three-run moon shot that just cleared the left-center fence. And in the bottom of the ninth, Henderson was at the plate with two on and two out and roped a shot to deep center that was tracked down by Owl center fielder Steven Sultzbaugh for the final out.
"I couldn't be any prouder of the way our team competed," said head coach Billy Godwin. "I told them before Saturday's game that we're a good team and they needed to believe how good we really are. We can beat teams like [Rice] and we need to believe that and go out and play like that."
In Saturday's game, the Pirates evened the series when sophomore ace Seth Maness threw the first complete game of his career and all but shutdown the potent Rice lineup. Maness earned Conference USA pitcher of the week for his efforts, surrendering a single run on three hits while striking out eight and walking one batter.
Maness' mastery on the mound covered for a less than stellar day at the plate for the ECU lineup. Stephen Batts had a home run and both Drew Schieber and Dustin Harrington had two hits and an RBI. But four Pirate starters failed to register a hit and the team combined for nine strikeouts against Rice pitching.
On Friday, the Pirates jumped on Rice starter Jared Rogers early in the contest, pushing across seven runs in the first 1 1/3 innings before Rogers was yanked.
ECU continued to tear through Rice's pitching staff. Rogers' relief, Abe Gonzales, lasted only 2 1/3 innings after giving up four more runs to the Pirates. During the offensive onslaught, seven different Pirates scored with six, posting at least one RBI.
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