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Jones ignites rout of Seahawks
By Denny O'Brien
©2004 Bonesville.net
VIEW ECU-UNCW BOX SCORE
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KINSTON — Ryan Jones picked
the perfect moment to break out of a slump. With East Carolina nursing a 2-1
lead in the fifth inning, the senior centerfielder sent a two-run blast over
the right field wall that gave the Pirates a three-run cushion against rival
UNC Wilmington.
Two innings later, Jones, the
Conference USA Player of the Year, singled sharply to left field, setting
the table for a six-run seventh. By the time UNCW stopped the bleeding, the
Pirates had sent ten men to the plate and upped their lead to 11-2.
From there, it was smooth
sailing for top seed East Carolina (50-11), which beat the No. 3 seed
Seahawks 11-4 Sunday and advanced to the championship game of the Kinston
Regional today at noon. Officials decided the first pitch of the title
match-up will come an hour ahead of its published start time in an effort to
avoid the kind of conflict with rainy weather that delayed the 3 p.m.
scheduled start of Sunday's ECU-UNCW contest by about 2½
hours.
"That's as big a game as I've
ever coached in," Pirates coach Randy Mazey said after the game, which
lasted a little over three hours once it finally got underway. "I don't know
if these guys here beside me realize it, but that's as big a game as they've
played in.
"The way it worked out with
the rain today, we really didn't want to be out there playing tonight
(against Tennessee) and have to turn around and play a noon game tomorrow.
That's going to be tough on whoever wins this game. That puts us in a pretty
good position."
It turns out that battle will
also be with UNCW, which defeated Tennessee 4-3 in a game which ended after
midnight last night to eliminate the Volunteers from the double-elimination
event. Now, the Seahawks must upset the Pirates twice on Monday to claim
supremacy in the Regional.
Brody Taylor pitched six and
two-thirds innings to pick up the Sunday win and improve to 8-0 on the
season. Taylor, who carried a 4.62 ERA into last night's match-up with the
Seahawks, surrendered three runs on ten hits and walked one.
The Seahawks had little
trouble putting runners on base, but couldn't manufacture enough runs to
scare the favored Pirates.
"Brody's been giving up a lot
of hits lately," Mazey said. "He can really scatter them.
"When guys get on base, he
finds a way to settle down and the ball comes down in the zone. That's not
unlike him to give up a lot of hits and very few runs."
But it was like the Pirates of
old to plate 11 runs and pound 15 hits. Drew Costanzo (4-4, 3B, RBI), Ryan
Norwood (3-4, 2B), Mark Minicozzi (HR, 2B, 2RBI), and Ryan Jones (2-4, HR,
2RBI) each had multiple-hit games for ECU.
None was bigger than the
two-run blast from Jones.
"I was just trying to get
something positive going for us," Jones said. "When I hit it, I knew it was
going to be a home run.
"It was like a sigh of relief.
I've just felt like I've been in a bubble lately."
Trailing 4-1, the Seahawks
inched closer in the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot by centerfielder
Chip Crawey that closed the gap to 4-2. However, Minicozzi answered a
half-inning later with a solo blast of his own and the Pirates never looked
back.
"Between (Minicozzi) and (Poppert),
they're two of our hottest guys here the last couple of weeks, and they're
hitting eighth and ninth," Mazey said. "I wouldn't want to pitch against
this lineup right now. From one through nine, they're pretty solid."
East Carolina struck first on
Trevor Lawhorn's sacrifice fly that scored Norwood in the top of the second.
The Seahawks answered in the bottom half of the stanza when John Raynor
singled home Aaron Smith to even the score at one apiece.
The Pirates reclaimed the lead
in the top of the fourth on a Minicozzi double that scored Costanzo from
first. Costanzo led off the inning with a single, his second of the day, but
was stranded until Minicozzi's laser down the third base line.
"We're feeling good about our
chances," Mazey said. "But at the same time, it's not over. We've got to go
out and do what we do well, which is play hard from the first inning to the
last.
"If we go out tomorrow
thinking we're just going to beat them just by showing up, that definitely
is not going to happen. ...We're going to play with a lot of confidence when
that game starts tomorrow."
Copyright 2004
Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:39:02 AM
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