East Carolina Upends Duke in 10

Wednesday, April 22

Greenville, N.C.

6:30 PM

Duke University

East Carolina

East Carolina Upends Duke in 10

4/22/2015 10:40:00 PM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Tied 2-2 heading to the bottom of the 10th, the Pirates' Luke Lowery laced a walkoff single to center to lift East Carolina to the 3-2 victory over Duke Wednesday evening at Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Duke (22-18) outhit East Carolina (26-16), 10-9, but the Blue Devils could not capitalize on their opportunities early and left eight runners on over the first five innings. The Pirates retired the final 10 Blue Devil batters they faced to close out the game.

“I thought I was a terrifically pitched ballgame,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “Through nine innings, it was one of the best defensive games we'd played all year. Reality is we didn't lose it in the bottom of the 10th. We lost it in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth when we didn't have a very good offensive approach. I thought we had a good approach through five innings; we battled and we put guys in scoring position. We didn't maintain that approach over the second half of the game.”

Freshman Peter Zyla registered his first career three-hit game, collecting singles in the first, fifth and seventh innings. Redshirt senior Mike Rosenfeld and sophomore Cris Perez also notched two hits each.

After Duke left the bases loaded in the top half, East Carolina plated the game's first run in the bottom of the second. Catcher Travis Watkins reached on a fielder's choice and scored on a Jackson Mims two-out RBI single. The base knock was the first of three hits for Mims.

The Blue Devils answered in the fourth to tie the game at one-all. Freshman Justin Bellinger led off with a single and ultimately crossed home on a Jalen Phillips RBI double.

The back-and-forth action continued as the Pirates scored a second run to regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth. A leadoff walk to Luke Lowery proved costly. Lowery advanced to second after Watkins was hit by a pitch and stole third. Garrett Brooks then bounced an infield single, allowing Lowery to score.

Zyla, Rosenfeld and C. Perez each picked up their second hit of the night to once again knot the score. Zyla singled and C. Perez drove in his team-leading 24th RBI of the season with an RBI single up the middle.

The scoring abated after the fifth as neither team could scratch out another run. Duke relievers Ryan Day, Sarkis Ohanian covered the Mitch Stallings final 4.2 innings, allowing just three base runners during that span.

After Kenny Koplove (1-2) tossed a scoreless ninth, the Blue Devils headed to extra innings for the fourth time this season. Designated hitter Reid Love singled with one out to begin the rally. Following a walk to right fielder Eric Tyler, Lowery provided the game-winning line drive to end the game. Duke is now 2-2 in extra-inning contests this season.

ECU reliever Jimmy Boyd (5-7) earned the win after throwing two hitless innings to close out the game.

Duke returns to Jack Coombs Field this weekend to take on Virginia Tech in a three-game series Friday-Sunday, April 24-26.

#GoDuke