No. 10 Pirates Edge Baseball Bears in Ninth Inning, 4-3

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Missouri State took a 3-2 lead into the ninth inning at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Saturday when the 10th-ranked East Carolina Pirates rallied for two runs for the 4-3 victory.

Holding a 3-2 advantage after Taeg Gollert’s RBI single in the seventh inning, Bears’ starter Hayden Minton finished off his eight-strikeout performance with one out in the seventh and turned the ball over to Trey Ziegenbein, who retired the first five Pirates he faced to run his scoreless streak to 12.2 innings and carry the one-run advantage into the ninth.

ECU (15-4) opened the ninth with three consecutive singles for the tie, then struck out and hit a potential inning-ending double play ball that the Bears’ infield mishandled, opening the door for Jacob Starling to single back up the middle for the 4-3 victory.

Minton had another strong start and yielded eight hits, with just one going for extra bases. His streak of 18 consecutive batters retired ended with a two-out double in the opening inning.

Missouri State (11-7) opened the scoring in the fifth inning as a Cam Cratic single and Nick Rodriguez double put two in scoring position, and an RBI ground out by Spencer Nivens and wild pitch made it a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates immediately answered with four consecutive one-out singles in the bottom half for the 2-2 tie, and the Bears went back on top in the seventh when Gollert singled home Rodriguez for the 3-2 lead. Rodriguez finished 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs in the game.

The Bears left 10 runners on base, including four stranded 90 feet from home.

The series concludes at noon Central on Sunday