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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – For six innings Friday night, Evan Kruczynski and James Karinchak matched each other pitch for pitch. Each had moments of dominance mixed in with moments of drama in putting up zeroes as third-seeded East Carolina and second-seeded Bryant met in the second game of the Charlottesville Regional.
But the Pirates’ Kruczynski, a junior lefty known as “Kruz,” made one more pitch and put up one more zero, and his teammates bullied around the Bulldogs’ bullpen in a 9-1 win at Virginia’s Davenport Field. The win – four years and a day since East Carolina’s last NCAA Tournament win – set up a date with the defending-champion Cavaliers at 4 p.m. Bryant, which entered with an NCAA-best 47 wins, faces William and Mary at 11 a.m. in an elimination game.
Kruczynski (7-1) tossed seven scoreless innings with six hits and six strikeouts, dodging a few threats along the way. Karinchak (12-3), for his part, yielded only three hits and struck out eight before leaving with one out in the seventh. Two batters later Bryce Harman delivered a sacrifice fly for the game’s first run.
“We’re lucky to have Evan Kruczynski; he matched him pitch for pitch,” Pirates coach Cliff Godwin said.
Pitching in close games is nothing new for Kruczynski. As the Pirates’ Friday night starter, he’s squared off against some of the best in the nation, and Godwin said he’s been on the mound in a lot of 0-0 games.
“It takes a special person to go out there when every pitch is with the game on the line,” Godwin added.
Special on Friday night meant working around the first two batters getting on in the fourth, finishing off the Bryant threat with a three-pitch strikeout. It meant striking out two to start the fifth, only to allow two more baserunners and need a nice running catch by shortstop Turner Brown to get out of the fifth. And it meant making one more pitch – after Garrett Brooks made a splendid diving catch in center and Brown saved the tying run by making a sliding stop of a ground ball up the middle wishing to find outfield grass, only to throw low to Harman – in getting 3-hole Robby Rinn to fly out harmlessly to left as he began to tire in the seventh inning.
“I wasn’t really sure,” Kruczynski said when asked when he knew he’d have a good night. “My stuff wasn’t the greatest, I’m not going to lie to you…I don’t think I had one clean inning all game.”
True, but he mixed an effective change up and slider with his mid-80s fastball, silencing a Bulldogs offense that came in averaging 8.1 runs a game. Entering Friday, Bryant hadn’t been shut out all season and held to one run once.
“Early in the count, he was throwing change ups,” said Bulldogs second baseman Cole Fabio, who had two of his team’s six hits. “We really got out of our approach and didn’t make any adjustments.”
The Pirates (35-21-1) scratched for a run in the top of the seventh when Kruczynski’s battery-mate, Travis Watkins (3 for 4, 2 R), walked to open the inning and moved to third on Eric Tyler’s single to right-center.
With Karinchak at 96 pitches, Bryant coach Steve Owens summoned his lefty closer Justin Snyder to face the left-handed-hitting Harman, who drove a ball to center for a sacrifice fly.
“It was huge,” Godwin said of Harman’s fly ball. “Bryce and I had a little one on one…I challenged him just to compete.”
Owens said the decision to turn to his bullpen wasn’t very difficult and that he thought Karinchak was starting to tire.
“That was the most critical time in the game,” Owens said. “You just don’t want to have a blowup inning there. I thought it was a better matchup with Justin coming in there.”
Snyder minimized the inning, thanks in part to a slick play by shortstop Dan Cellucci, who slid to his left, smothered the ball and flipped to Fabio for a force at second to get out of the inning.
But the Pirates put the game away the next inning.
Charlie Yorgen (3 for 5, R, RBI) singled to open the eighth, and after James Davitt relieved, moved up to second on a ground out. Brown singled him in, Watkins followed with a single and Brooks had the first of his two RBI doubles to make it 3-0.
After an intentional walk to load the bases, lefty Logan Lessard came in to face Harman, but walked him. Pinch-hitter Kirk Morgan singled through Fabio, drawn in at second, to plate two more, and Yorgen hit a missile off the wall in right for an RBI double to close the seven-run inning – he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
“I’m disappointed with the final score because I don’t think it told the story of the game,” Owens said. “But it doesn’t matter. A loss is a loss.”
Notes
- Kruczynski praised his defense after the game, and for the better part of the game, both defenses played very well. In addition to Brooks’ diving catch in center, two infield plays for the Pirates stood out. Brown at short was charged with an error after he snared a ball up the middle and threw low to first, where Harman couldn’t make the pick but kept the ball on the infield. And in the eighth inning, Yorgen, who had quite a night, made a diving backhand and fired to first to rob Mickey Gasper. Also of note, Harman saved a wild throw from Yorgen on an attempted double play in the third, then alertly tagging Nick Angelini, who had turned toward second. For the Bulldogs, Fabio started a slick 4-6-3 double play with a backhand glove flip.
- Karinchak got into a groove in the middle innings, retiring 9 of 10 with three strikeouts from the last out of the third through the sixth. He totaled 27 pitches from the fourth to sixth innings before running into a jam in the seventh. “I thought James was awesome today, he gave us a lot of energy,” Owens said.
- The game was delayed nearly two hours at the start as a band of storms passed through Charlottesville right after the original start time of 4 p.m.
- Three ECU starters hail from Richmond, about an hour east of Charlottesville, and two had really big nights. Yorgen went 3 for 5 with another ball hit on the screws and made one of the defensive plays of the night. He also had two hits in the seven-run outburst. Harman drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly and later walked with the bases loaded for another RBI. Luke Bolka nearly hit a two-run homer that AJ Zarozny hauled in near the wall in left in the fourth inning.
- ECU moves on to face Virginia on Saturday. The Pirates took two of three at Davenport Field the second weekend of the season. “It’s a long time ago,” Godwin said. “Virginia’s a much different team. They’ve played much better than they did at the beginning of the year.”
- Karinchak was terrific as well and was closing in on 100 pitches when he was relieved by Snyder, the Bulldogs’ closer who led the NEC with 10 saves. “I never want to come out of the game,” Karinchak said. “He gave us a better opportunity to get out of the jam at that point.”