Greenville, N.C.- The Elon Phoenix (10-18, 2-4 CAA) showcased a powerful final inning stretch in a loss to the East Carolina Pirates (20-10, 6-0 AAC) Wednesday night. The Phoenix homered three times in the 7-5 loss, and matched a season high set against the College of Charleston.
 
Vince Fattore, Ryan Sprock and Justin Szestowicki all homered in the loss to the Pirates. Sprock now leads the team in home runs with four on the season. Fattore, Szestowicki and Jackson Alford all drove in runs on Wednesday night.
 
Eight different Phoenix pitchers threw against the Pirates, Wednesday night. Owen Winebarger and Mike Staiano both delivered an inning or more of scoreless relief. Nic Harris struck out two batters in his lone inning of work.
 
How It Happened

• ECU struck first in the bottom of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead on the Phoenix.
• The Pirates would extend their lead in the bottom of the second inning with another two unearned runs to increase the lead to three.
• After a clean inning from Owen Winebarger, the Pirates added another run to take a 4-0 lead.
• After four innings of little production, the Phoenix offense began to flow. After a series of quality at-bats. After a quality pinch hit at-bat from Alex Duffey, Jackson Alford worked a bases loaded walk to bring in the first Elon run.
• In the sixth, ECU plated two more runs to take a 6-1 advantage.
• The Phoenix would not go quietly, punctuating with a solo home run to right field from Vince Fattore.
• Elon continued to chop away in the top of the eighth when, with a runner on first, Ryan Sprock launched a home run down the right field line that was gone by plenty.
• After an ECU insurance run in the eighth, Elon countered with another home run in the ninth from Justin Szestowicki. The Szestowicki homer would not be enough as the Phoenix fell to the Pirates by a score of 7-5.

 
Notes and Stats

• The Phoenix falls to 10-18 on the season with Sunday's loss.
• The loss to the Pirates marks the sixth straight loss in the series to ECU.
• Ryan Sprock hit his fourth homer on the season to lead the Phoenix in the category. Sprock also drove in a game high two runs.
• Vince Fattore hit his second home run of the season in the loss. Fattore hit a season high 411-foot blast to right center field against the Pirates.
• Justin Szestowicki hit his first home run of the season in the defeat. The home run marked Szestowicki's first since April 12^th last season against Hofstra.
• Owen Winebarger delivered an inning of scoreless relief against the Pirates and left two runners stranded.
• Nic Harris put away two batters via the strikeout with a runner in scoring position.
• Mike Staiano put together a fine relief appearance with 1.1 innings out of the bullpen and just one hit allowed.

Up Next
The Phoenix hit the road for another CAA road series test against the William & Mary Tribe. First pitch on Friday will be at 6 PM.