Witter leads ECU to sweep of Albany

Published in Sports on April 17, 2006 1:58 PM

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GREENVILLE -- Adam Witter's three hit and six RBI performance at the plate, which included his second career grand slam, paced the Pirates to their sixth consecutive win and its third series sweep of the season as East Carolina defeated Albany 13-9 on Sunday afternoon at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Witter's bomb to right field, the seventh of the season, put ECU up 10-9 and the Pirates never looked back. Harrison Eldridge and Jamie Ray each had back-to-back singles to left before moving up a base on Dale Mollenhauer's fielder's choice.

Witter was one of three Pirates (25-13) to collect three hits on the afternoon and one of six to have multiple hits. Eldridge was 3-for-4 with two runs and one RBI and Stephen Batts collected his third three-hit game of the season after going 3-for-4. Jay Mattox continued his hot hitting after going 2-for-5 with a home run, his third, and a double. Mollenhauer and Ryan Wood also had two hits, with Wood extending his hit streak to 12 games.

Al Barbato and Tom Hill lead five Albany (8-20) players with multiple hits as each of them collected a pair of hits, a home run and three RBI.

Scott Andrews picked up his second win of the season after relieving starter Shane Mathews in the fifth inning. He finished the game working 31/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out one. Mathews allowed seven runs in 42/3 innings and fanned five. Jason Neitz came in to close the game

Nick Murphy (1-4) suffered the loss after giving up 10 runs (eight earned) in five innings. Chris Ott and Sean Gregory closed out the final three innings allowing three runs with one strike out.

Albany got on the scoreboard early in the top of the first scoring a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead. Hill got the scoring going with a two-out triple to center field that scored Steve Wyland. Sean Donovan plated the second run on a double to left scoring Wyland.

ECU scored four runs in the bottom of the second, highlighted by Mattox's two-run blast to right field that tied the game at two. The Pirates then took the lead when Drew Schieber reach first on a fielding error that scored Jake Dean. Eldridge's sacrifice fly scored Batts for a 4-2 lead.

Barbato connected on his second home run of the season in the top of the third with a solo shot to right pulling within one, 4-3. Later in the inning, Donovan knocked in his second run of the game with a single to center before ECU's Mattox threw him out at first to end the inning.

Hill put Albany up 7-4 after on his seventh homer of the season, a two-run shot to dead centerfield off Mathews. Barbato scored the first run of the inning on a wild pitch.

ECU scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth cutting the lead to one, 7-6. Witter touched home on a fielding error by Donovan and Wood scored when Dean stole second base.

Barbato extended the Great Danes lead to three, 9-6, with a one-out single to right in the top of the sixth plating Rashad Barksdale.

Witter drove in two of the Pirates three runs in the bottom of the seventh as ECU extended its lead to 13-9.

The Pirates will be back in action Tuesday night when they travel to Raleigh to face in-state rival N.C. State with a 7 p.m. first pitch expected.

ECU Sports Information