Pirates lick Louisville for Bama sweep

Hoffman hurls four innings of perfect relief

From electronic and staff reports
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No. 29 East Carolina finished its cruise through the DRASH Alabama Classic on Sunday, cashing in on five unearned runs and banging out 13 hits to sail past 14th-ranked Louisville 9-4 on the final day of the round-robin invitational event in Tuscaloosa.

Louisville (10-5) took its only lead of the game in the bottom of the first. Sophomore centerfielder Adam Engel led off with a single, advanced to third on a walk and a wild pitch, then scored on an infield out.

In the next inning, the Pirates made up for that run and more thanks to a costly miscue by the Cardinals after the first two batters were retired on groundouts.

Senior catcher Zach Wright reached base on an error on the first baseman to keep the inning alive. Singles by junior rightfielder Philip Clark, senior second baseman Tim Younger, sophomore centerfielder Ben Fultz and sophomore shortstop Jack Reinheimer — combined with a wild pitch by Louisville starter Travis Tingle — produced four runs and gave East Carolina (11-3) the lead for good.

Junior righthander Jharel Cotton (3-0) hung in for five innings and got credit for the win after giving up six hits, five walks and all four of the Cardinals' runs. Freshman righthander Jeff Hoffman took over at the start of the sixth inning and pitched no-hit ball the rest of the way, retiring all 12 batters he faced.

Tingle (2-1), a senior righthander, went four innings and took his first loss of the season.

The victory completed an East Carolina sweep in the Classic. The Pirates finished the event with a 3-0 record. Alabama, Louisville and Oral Roberts each finished 1-2.

The Pirates took down host Alabama 3-1 on Friday and defeated Oral Roberts 4-2 on Saturday.

In Sunday's other game, the Crimson Tide fell to ORU 3-2. Louisville beat the Golden Eagles 7-3 on Friday but lost a 7-6 nail-biter to the Crimson Tide on Saturday.

Next up for East Carolina is a 5 p.m. matchup at home on Tuesday with Virginia Commonwealth.

PAGE UPDATED 03/12/12 04:23 AM.

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