GREENVILLE, NC– The Monmouth University baseball team took No. 17 East Carolina to its final at bat for the second straight day, but fell 5-2 in Greenville, NC Saturday afternoon. Anthony Ciavarella (Phillipsburg, NJ/Phillipsburg) only allowed an unearned run through six, and Pete Papcun (Brick, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) had two hits and a run batted in for the Blue and White.

MU fought back to tie the game at two in the eighth, sparked by back-to-back singles leading off from Robbie Alessandrine (Sewell, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) and Grant Lamberton (Newark, DE/Salesianum). After both moved up on a wild pitch, Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) grounded out to score the first run and cut the ECU lead to 2-1. Papcun followed with a game-tying double down the left field line to make it two-all in the eighth.

In the bottom half of the inning, Garrett Brooks singled leading off and Jeff Nelson and Bryce Harman both walked to load the bases with one away. Parker Lamm put the Pirates in front with a base hit, and Charlie Yorgen walked to make it 4-2 before Travis Watkins added a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2, the eventual final score.

Eric Tyler's infield single extended the ECU lead to 2-0 in the seventh. Tyler also singled home a run in the third to make it 1-0 ECU.

Ciavarella allowed an unearned run in his six innings, fanning three. Ben Hoffman (Berlin, NJ/Voorhees) took the loss while Jimmy Boyd got the win for ECU.

The teams wrap up the weekend set tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m.