CHARLOTTESVILLE, V.a. (WNCT) — East Carolina defeated the Oklahoma Sooners for the second time this weekend to keep its baseball season alive.
East Carolina was able to hold off the Sooners in an elimination game on Sunday, winning 8-5 to head to the regional final and a rematch with Virginia. The Pirates (47-18) and Virginia (47-12) will play Sunday at 6. Virginia beat ECU, 2-1, on Saturday. ECU has to win Sunday evening to force a deciding game on Monday.
Oklahoma, which advanced to the College World Series title game last season, ends this season at 32-26.
Oklahoma struck first with an RBI flyout by Anthony Mackenzie, scoring Kendall Pettis in the first inning. The Pirates tied the game in the third with a squeeze bunt by Jacob Starling that scored Joey Berini followed by a single by Cam Clonch that knocked in Jacob Starling.
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The Pirates blew the game open in the fifth, leading off with a Carther Cunningham double which scored Lane Hoover.
This was followed by a Josh Moylan RBI single, a Cam Clonch sacrifice flyout, a Jacob Jenkins Cowart RBI double and a Justin Wilcoxen RBI double.
Oklahoma pushed across a few of its own in the fifth with a Dakota Harris RBI single that scored Pettis, Bryce Madron and Dakota Harris all in the same inning, cutting the Pirates’ lead to four.
The score remained the same until the ninth inning when a lead-off home run was hit by Madron. Carter Spivey got the last few outs needed and helped his team seal the big win.
Josh Grosz, Danny Beal, Landon Ginn and Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman also saw action on the mound, with Lunsford-Shenkman striking out four.