ECU Wins 2022 Keith LeClair Classic Title | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of ECU Sports.



    GREENVILLE, N.C.     Bryson Worrell hit his second home run of the season, while Alec Makarewicz collected three hits leading East Carolina to a 6-3 win over No. 21 Maryland Sunday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium. With the win, the Pirates improve to 6-5 on the season and claimed the 19th Annual Keith LeClair Classic crown while the Terrapins fell to 9-2.

    With the scored knotted at one-all heading to the bottom of the third inning, the Pirates plated four runs to take a 5-3 lead and never looked back. Joey Berini led off the frame with a single to left and came around to score on Worrell's second home run of the season with a shot to right field. Lane Hoover followed with a walk and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart followed with a single up the middle pushing Hoover to second. Makarewicz doubled down the left field line scoring Hoover and Jenkins-Cowart scored when Carter Cunningham lined into a double play.

    Danny Beal (1-0) earned the win allowing one run (earned) on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts in two innings of relief. Ryder Giles registered his first save of the season with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief and three punch outs. Starter Jake Hunter gave up two runs (both earned) on six hits with three strikeouts in three-plus innings and Skylar Brooks surrendered a hit and walked two in 1.2 frames out of the bullpen.

    Jason Savacool (2-1) took the loss after being touched for all six runs (five earned) on nine hits with a pair of walks and five strikeouts in seven innings. Will Glock tossed a scoreless eighth giving up a hit.

    Maryland jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the opening stanza when Luke Shliger scored on Matt Shaw's ground out to short. Shliger, who tallied a pair of hits, singled to start the game and moved to third on Chris Alleyene's single through the right side before touching home following Shaw's at-bat.

    ECU drew even in the second frame tying the game at one-all. Makarewicz reached on an infield single then took second on Cunningham's bunt single down the third base line. After Justin Wilcoxen grounded out to first and put runners on second and third Zach Agnos grounded out to Savacool on a bunt back to the mound that plated Makarewicz.

    Maryland would add runs in the fourth and sixth innings, while ECU added an insurance run in the fifth when Hoover scored from second on a fly ball by Jenkins-Cowart to center coupled with a fielding error by the Terrapins.

    ECU out-hit Maryland 10-9 on the day getting base knocks from seven of its starting nine. Makarewicz led all players with three hits, while Worrell collected two in the contest to go with his two RBI. Hoover scored twice, Josh Moylan extended his on-base streak to 10 games and Jenkins-Cowart pushed his hit streak to a five.