The Pirates were led by the pitching of southpaw senior Brody Taylor, hitting of senior catcher Jake Smith and the fielding of sophomore Harrison Eldridge in rightfield and junior Jacob Dean at third base.

Taylor picked up his eighth win of the season, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits over 7 1/3 innings. He struck out only one Green Wave batter, but went out with a bang by striking out conference player of the year Mark Hamilton to end his outing. It was his second win of the year, and observed that the best way to pitch the Green Wave "fit into my comfort zone". Hamilton added that he "made good pitches to get out of the jams".

Jake Smith provided the power for the Pirates, as his two-run homer to left centerfield concluded the scoring for East Carolina and proved the final margin of victory. Tulane starter Sean Morgan dropped to 8-5 on the season, but ECU had to beat him near the top of his form -- "(Smith) took my best pitch and hit it over the fence".

Dean was a vacuum at third base, making several sparkling plays to keep the Green Wave off the board. As mentioned in a previous post, Eldridge made the two catches of the game against the wall to stamp out Tulane threats in the first and seventh.

With the loss, Tulane falls into the losers' bracket and will take the field tomorrow morning at 9:00. East Carolina awaits the winner of this afternoon's match between #2 Houston and #7 Marshall.