Elon Baseball Suffers Heartbreaking Loss to #16 East Carolina

ELON, N.C. – After rallying from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game at five, the Elon University baseball team surrendered two runs in the top of the 11th inning to fall to the 16th-ranked East Carolina Pirates by a 7-5 margin at Latham Park on Tuesday night.

Nick Zammarelli went 2-for-4 with a double, home run and four RBI to lead Elon (10-18) at the plate. Ryne Ogren tripled during a 2-for-5, two-run performance for the Phoenix.

East Carolina (20-9) got a homer and two RBI from Dwanya Williams-Sutton who went 3-for-5. Turner Brown added three hits in the Pirate attack.

Joe McGillicuddy (0-2) took the loss after allowing two runs in 1.2 innings. He struck out three. Elon starter Jordan Barrett went 5.0 innings, giving up three runs on six hits.

The win went to Joe Ingle (4-2) who gave up one run on four hits in 4.0 innings. Ingle fanned seven.

How It Happened: Trailing 5-1 entering the last of the eighth inning, Elon began its rally with an Austin Leeney infield single. Ogren followed with a single before Ingle came on and allowed Zammarelli to tie the game on a home run to center. The shot was the fifth of the year for Zammarelli. The Phoenix would later put runners on second and third with one out, but a strike out and fly out ended Elon’s chance to move on top.

It remained a 5-5 game until the top of the 11th inning. With one out, ECU drew three consecutive walks to load the bases. McGillicuddy retired the next hitter on strikes before Brady Lloyd swung and missed for strike three, however, the pitch bounced away and went to the wall behind home plate and allowed all runners to advance and the go-ahead run to score. Another wild pitch would then let a second run score as the Pirates took the 7-5 advantage.

ECU took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Travis Watkins single. The Pirates added two more in the fifth, including Williams-Sutton’s leadoff homer, before plating one in the sixth.

The Phoenix was held hitless until the sixth inning when, after Leeney was plunked, Ogren laced a ball to right-center for a triple. He would then score on a Zammarelli sacrifice fly to make it a 4-2 game.

Notes: The Phoenix split the season series with the Pirates who were ranked 16th at the time of both contests… The teams combined for 29 strikeouts… Zammarelli ran his hitting streak to 11 games.

On Deck: Elon will be right back in action tomorrow night at 6 p.m. as the Phoenix visits North Carolina A&T.