ECU Earns Series Win At Memphis, 8-5 | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    MEMPHIS, Tenn.     Alec Makarewicz and Bryson Worrell each drove in a pair of runs helping East Carolina to an 8-5 American Athletic Conference series clinching win over Memphis Saturday afternoon at FedEx Park. With the win, the Pirates improved to 29-18 overall and 13-4 in league play while the Tigers fell to 21-23 and 5-12.

    Trey Yesavage (1-0) earned his first collegiate win allowing one run (earned) on one hit with a walk and three strikeouts in 1.1. relief frames. Ben Terwilliger notched his first save at ECU tossing a scoreless ninth with a pair of strikeouts extending the Pirates lead in The American to two games over Houston and UCF. Starter Ryder Giles surrendered one runs (unearned) on five hits with a walk over three-plus innings before turning the game over to the bullpen. Garrett Saylor (2.0 IP, 3 Hs, 2 Rs, 3 Ks) and Zach Agnos (1.2 IP, 2 Hs, 1 R) also saw action in relief.

    Dalton Fowler (2-3) suffered the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits with five walks and two strikeouts in five innings. Blake Wimberley yielded three runs (all unearned) on four hits with a punch out in two innings, while Chase Kessinger gave up one run (earned) on two hits with a pair of punch outs in two frames.

    ECU wasted little time in pushing a run across as it took and early 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Agnos got things going with a double to left-center extending his on-base streak to 21 consecutive games. Lane Hoover moved Agnos to third on a ground out back to Fowler in front of the pitcher's mound and Worrell's RBI ground out to short gave the Pirates the early lead.

    The Pirates extended their lead plating a pair of runs in the second inning for a 3-0 advantage. Justin Wilcoxen singled to start the stanza and ended up on third following Josh Moylan's walk and when Ben Newton reached on an error. Makarewicz pushed across the first run with a bases loaded walk and two batters later, Hoover's fielder's choice scored Moylan.

    Makarewicz' second RBI of the contest gave ECU a 4-0 lead in the top of the fourth frame. Moylan drew his second walk of the afternoon to start the inning and took second on Newton's base hit through the right side. After a Fowler wild pitch that moved the runners up 90 feet, Makarewicz ground out to second for his 10th multi-RBI game of the year.

    Memphis finally broke through in the home half of the fourth cutting ECU's lead to three, 4-1. Jacob Compton singled through the right side to leadoff the frame and took third on Ian Bibiloni's single to left coupled with a Hoover error. Compton would cross home on a passed ball before the Pirates went to the pen in Yesavage, who struck out the side to end the Tigers threat.

    Compton's sac fly RBI pulled the Tigers within two, 4-2, in the fifth inning. Zach Wilson reached on an infield single and took second on Logan Kohler's walk. After taking third on Bennett Brooks' fielder's choice, Wilson crossed home on Compton's deep fly ball to left-center.

    ECU tacked on three runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, while Memphis scored two in seventh and one in the eighth capping the scoring at 8-5. Worrell extended his hit streak to a team-best 13 games with an infield single to start the seventh but was quickly erased when Jacob Jenkins-Cowart reached on a fielder's choice. A wild pitch moved Jenkins-Cowart into scoring position and after a strikeout, Cam Clonch reached on a fielding error by Kohler where Jenkins-Cowart touched home. Moylan followed with an RBI double to right plating Clonch and would later score when Newton singled to second coupled with a Tiger error for a 7-2 advantage.

    Memphis responded with a pair in the home half of the seventh thanks to Ben Brooks' RBI double down the left field line pushing across Wilson and Kohler.

    Worrell's sac bunt in the eighth scored Hoover after he tripled down the right field line making it an 8-4 ball game. Memphis' Brennan DuBose's single up the middle scored Blake Daniels after he doubled to right-center with two away in the eighth.

    Offensively, ECU pounded out 10 hits getting two from Newton. Seven others tallied one hit while Moylan scored a game-high three runs.

    The two teams will close out the three-game series on Sunday, May 8 with a 1 p.m. (ET) scheduled first pitch. Pirate fans can catch all the action on 94.3 The Game or on the Varsity Network app.