Champ Central
CLEARWATER, Fla. – Pinch hitter Kirk Morgan’s suicide squeeze bunt in the bottom of the ninth scored Charlie Yorgen to cap East Carolina’s rally from a two-run deficit and send the eighth-seeded Pirates to the semifinal round of the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship with a 6-5 win against USF Thursday night at Spectrum Field.
The Pirates (31-27) advance to the semifinal round of the tournament for the second time in three years, where they will await the winner of Friday’s elimination game between USF and UCF. East Carolina, the first No. 8 seed to reach The American semifinals in the three-year history of the current tournament format, will play its semifinal game Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
The USF (41-16) elimination game against UCF will be Friday at 3 p.m. ET. The winner of that game would then need to defeat East Carolina twice on Saturday in order to reach Sunday’s winner-take-all final.
East Carolina trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the ninth, but put its first three runners on base to start the inning as Drew Henrickson legged out an infield hit, Luke Bolka drew a pinch hit walk and Yorgen’s chopper went over the third-baseman’s head into shallow left for an RBI double. Travis Watkins stroked a sacrifice fly to right to bring Henrickson home and send Yorgen to third, and East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin pinch hit for his cleanup hitter when he sent Morgan to the plate for Spencer Brickhouse.
Facing a 1-1 count, and with Yorgen breaking for the plate, Morgan dropped a perfect bunt down the first base line, ending the game with just his sixth hit of the season.
The Bulls were in position to win it after they erased the Pirates’ early 3-2 deficit to build a 5-3 advantage. USF tied it in the top of the sixth on Duke Stunkel Jr.’s double down the leftfield line, which brought home Chris Chatfield, and the Bulls took the lead when Luke Borders’ line drive to left-center fell just past a diving Dwanya Williams-Sutton for a two-run single, putting USF on top 5-3.
The teams traded single runs in the first and fourth innings, and East Carolina took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Yorgen tripled to rightfield and scored on Watkins’ sacrifice fly.
Yorgen finished 3-for-5 with three runs scored, while Watkins went 0-for-2, but had two key sacrifice flies for the Pirates, who have won three straight. Matt Bridges (1-3) picked up the win in relief after he worked a scoreless ninth inning. The Pirates had only two hits through the first seven innings, but had five hits in the eighth and ninth.
USF was led by Kevin Merrell, who went 2-for-4 and scored two runs, while Chatfield went 1-for-3, including his second home run of the tournament. Joe Cavallaro (5-3) took the loss. The Bulls had been 32-0 this season when leading after eight innings prior to Thursday's game.
Tickets for the championship will be available at Spectrum Field each day of the tournament or may be purchased in advance by calling the box office at 727-467-4457. The latest information on the American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship is available on the conference’s Championship Central page at
www.TheAmerican.org/Baseball.