Houston wins 9th straight behind Pruitt

From electronic and staff reports
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Senior righthander Austin Pruitt often had East Carolina's batters swinging at air as he successfully engaged ECU junior rightie Ryan Williams in a pitcher's duel in Houston's 4-3 Conference USA victory over the Pirates Saturday night at Cougar Field.

The win was the Cougars' ninth in a row, boosting the team's record to 20-4 overall, 2-0 in the league.

The outcome added another layer of frustration to ECU's struggles of late. The Pirates, who have lost four consecutive games and seven of their last nine, fell below .500 at 11-12, 0-2 in C-USA.

By the time Pruitt was chased as ECU mounted a comeback attempt in the ninth, he had fanned a career-high 13, easily besting his previous mark of 10 set earlier this season.

Williams put in 6 1/3 solid innings for the Pirates, scattering seven hits and allowing four runs before giving way to senior southpaw Jake Harris.

Houston jumped in front 2-0 in the third on freshman third baseman Kyle Kirk's RBI single and freshman first baseman Justin Montemayor's RBI triple.

After junior first baseman Chase McDonald put ECU on the scoreboard with a home run in the top of the fifth, the Cougars responded with two scores in the bottom of the inning on a passed ball and leftfielder Mike Pyeatt's fielder's choice grounder.

Trailing 4-1, the Pirates threatened in their final at bat. Junior shortstop Jack Reinheimer, junior rightfielder Dylan Brown and senior third baseman Jay Cannon led off with consecutive singles, sending Pruitt to the showers.

Reliever Tyler Ford lasted one batter, serving up a fielder's choice grounder to junior leftfielder Ben Fultz. Reinheimer scored on the play and Cannon was put out at second.

McDonald followed with a sacrifice fly off closer Wellbrock, driving in Brown to cut the gap to 4-3.

But Wellbrock struck out junior pinch-hitter Drew Reynolds to seal the triumph and the series for Houston. The Cougars won Friday's matchup 7-2.

The teams will conclude their three-game set on Sunday (2 p.m.).

PAGE UPDATED 03/24/13 04:16 AM.

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