The Pirates (34-21-1, 15-8-1 AAC) had a lot of substitutions when it came to batters, having twelve men step up to the plate. Despite having offensive help from eight of those twelve hitters, and a very spread out distribution, they could not match Memphis’ outing.
The ninth spot plagued ECU, none of the three designated hitters/pinch runners recorded a hit. Baseball fans did a double take at the starting lineup today when Cliff Godwin put rotating starting pitcher Evan Kruczynski in the nine-spot as a designated hitter today to shake things up. Kruczynski has not batted all year so fans were eager to see what he would bring to the plate.