Sasser leads Pirate baseball team to non-league win

Published in Sports on February 12, 2007 2:06 PM

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GREENVILLE -- Junior left-hander Dustin Sasser scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run in six innings of work while Dale Mollenhauer's grand slam capped off a seven-run sixth to give East Carolina an 11-2 win over Liberty on Sunday afternoon inside Clark LeClair Stadium.

Sasser (1-0), a Charles B. Aycock grad, struck out three batters and walked two on the afternoon before giving way to Mike Flye. Flye and Jason Neitz combined to work a scoreless seventh, while freshman Joe O'Malley saw his first collegiate action in the eighth allowing one run (earned), on one hit with two walks and a strikeout. Junior Shane Mathews, who got the save Saturday, closed out the ninth inning giving up one and fanning one batter.

With the contest tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth, senior Ryan Tousley got the seven-run inning started with a single to left field and then scored on Jake Dean's double to right-center. Jamie Ray then drove in Dean with another single to right to push the lead to 3-1. After freshman Broc Sutton reached on a throwing error, Ryan Wood was hit by Dane Beakler fastball to put runners on first and second. Liberty made a pitching change with Grady Ihnat, who gave up a single to Harrison Eldridge to load the bases for Mollenhauer's homerun.

Henderson got the Pirates (2-1) on the scoreboard early in the first with a one-out double down the left field line off of starter David Stokes that scored Harrison Eldridge from second for a 1-0 lead.

Liberty (1-2) tied the game at one in the top of the fifth when Aaron Phillips crossed the plate on Patrick Gaillard's grounder to Mollenhauer. Nate Thompson's RBI single to left in the eighth scored Garrett Young to cap the Flames scoring.

Stokes (0-1) suffered the loss on the mound working 52/3 innings allowing three earned runs on seven hits while striking out and walking one.

ECU would plate one run in the seventh and two in the eighth to close out the scoring at 11-2.

Of the Pirates 15 hits on the day, Eldridge picked up four, while Mollenhauer, Tousley, Cory Kemp and Jamie Ray each collected two.

The Pirates will be back in action this weekend when they travel to Los Angeles to face No. 23 UCLA.

-- ECU sports information