HOUSTON, Texas – The East Carolina softball team’s comeback attempt fell short in its series opener against Houston as the Cougars outlasted the Pirates 4-3 on Thursday afternoon at Cougar Softball Stadium.
 
Taudrea Sinnie and Bailee Wilson each recorded two hits and an RBI for the Pirates (21-16, 0-7 AAC) who outhit the Cougars 6-4 but could not overcome a 4-0 deficit in search of its first conference win of the season. Addy Bullis (13-7) gave up four hits and four earned runs in the loss.
 
Kenna Wilkey (12-7) tossed 13 strikeouts in seven innings of work for the Cougars (17-17, 4-0 AAC).
 
Houston jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with back-to-back home runs from Bree Cantu and Turiya Coleman in the bottom of the first inning. Bullis would settle down in the next frame, retiring three of four Houston batters to keep the game at 2-0.
 
The Pirates would finally register their first hit of the game in the third inning on a double from Taylor Edwards but the Pirates would leave runners on second and third to exit the inning scoreless. The Cougars would double their lead in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run homer but Houston would not record another hit for the rest of the game.
 
ECU would finally get on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth when Wilson drove the ball over the center field wall to make it 4-1. Jocelyn Alonso would hit a solo home run of her own in the top of the sixth to pull ECU to within two runs. The Pirates would make things interesting in the top of the seventh when Sinnie doubled to left center to score Sydney Yoder to close the gap to 4-3. Wilkey and the Cougars would escape with the win as the Pirates could not capitalize with the bases loaded.
 
Up Next
East Carolina will look to even the series tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.