No. 12 ECU routs No. 9 Duke in midweek baseball showdown

No. 12 East Carolina walked into an ACC stadium and had no problems leaving with a win on Tuesday night.

The Pirates drilled five Duke pitchers for 15 hits in a 9-2 win over the No. 9 Blue Devils at Jack Coombs Field.

Every player in the ECU (27-9) lineup had at least one hit as Duke (30-8) used five pitchers. Dwanya Williams-Sutton and Jake Washer had three hits each. Washer and Spencer Brickhouse each drove in two runs for the Pirates.

ECU’s Jake Agnos (4-2) was the winning pitcher after he hurled five innings, allowing one run on three hits.

Duke starting pitcher Bill Chillari (5-1) took the loss. The Pirates tagged him for five hits and two runs in four innings.

Duke took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after Agnos walked Jimmy Herron to start the frame. Chris Proctor’s ground-ball single through the vacated shortstop position on a hit-and-run play allowed Herron to move to third with no outs.

Zack Kone drove Herron in with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Chillari allowed just one hit over the first three innings while protecting the lead.

But the Pirates finally solved him during a four-hit, two-run rally in the fourth inning.

Washer’s bloop single to short right-centerfield started the inning. One out later, Connor Litton’s ringing double down the line in left field drove in Washer, tying the score at 1-1.

Litton stole third and, when Duke catcher Chris Proctor’s errant throw skipped into left field, scored to give ECU a 2-1 lead.

Chillari allowed two more hits in the inning, including a double to Turner Brown. But Chillari’s pick-off of Williams-Sutton off second base just prior to Brown’s double kept the Pirates from extending their lead.

ECU did add to its lead in the fifth inning off Duke relief pitcher Bryce Jarvis.

Andrew Henrickson drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on Bryant Packard’s single. When Brady Lloyd bunted the ball toward the mound, Jarvis fielded and threw wildly to third. Henrickson scored on the error for a 3-1 ECU lead with the other runners advancing to second and third with no outs.

Brickhouse’s run-scoring groundout to second gave ECU a 4-1 lead.

The Pirates pushed their lead to 5-1 in the sixth inning on Alec Burleson’s single through a drawn-in infield drove in Williams-Sutton, who had started the inning with a double.

ECU turned the game into a blowout with four runs in the ninth inning.

This story was originally published April 17, 2018 at 9:29 PM with the headline "No. 12 ECU routs No. 9 Duke in midweek baseball showdown."