ECU baseball falls to South Florida in opening game of AAC Tournament

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA (WITN) - The 15th ranked ECU baseball team fell to South Florida 12-11 in 11 innings on Tuesday in their opening game of the American Athletic Conference tournament.

“Our guys did battle back and tie it so we could go to extra innings. But just didn’t do enough,” says ECU head coach Cliff Godwin, “Those middle innings our dugout was dead when we were just up 3-2. We just didn’t do enough in those middle innings.”

The Pirates used a big six run 7th inning to make a 9-3 lead after 7. Jacob Starling drove in three runs in the game. Lane Hoover, Josh Moylan, Ryley Johnson and Justin Wilcoxen drove in runs in the inning.

South Florida came all the way back to take the lead after scoring in the 8th and six runs in the 9th. The Pirates trailed 11-9.

Josh Moylan hit a 2-run homer in the 9th sent the game to extra ininngs.

Drew Brutcher drove in the eventual game-winning run in the 11th.

ECU did see pitcher Josh Grosz get ejected from the game for feeding Jacob Starling a sandwich after his home run in the first. Coach Godwin touched on it in his press conference he was ejected for using a prop in the home run celebration. He has been suspended for one game. Grosz was available to throw out of the bullpen today and was likely to get a start in the Pirates second game of the tournament. He will sit out on Wednesday.

The Pirates will face Cincinnati in the losers bracket on Wednesday at 3 PM.