One of the biggest at-bats in the East Carolina baseball team’s win over N.C. State came when Pirates’ reliever Aaron Groller was at his most vulnerable.
The Pirates’ left-handed reliever was facing the Wolfpack’s top lefty assassin in Garrett Pennington. With one out in the eighth inning and two runners on base after back-to-back singles, Groller’s job was to keep the Pirates’ three-run lead from dwindling.
Groller got ahead of Pennington with two quick strikes and set him down swinging two pitches later. Groller then blew away Josh Hogue — who had homered earlier in the game — on three pitches to escape the jam.
The ECU lefty went on to pitch a clean ninth to send the Pirates to a 10-6 win and their 32nd victory in 40 tries.
“I thought the biggest at-bat of the night, I don’t know if you guys look at splits, but Pennington hits like 900 or something against left-handed pitching,” ECU coach Cliff Godwin said. “So for Groller to be able to strike that guy out, that was a crucial moment. And then Groller is really tough on left-handers and they had a lot of left-handers in there.”
Pennington, the Wolfpack’s right-handed No. 2 hitter in the lineup, is batting .432 against left-handers, more than 100 points better than any other Wolfpack batter. He’s also had eight extra-base hits against lefties with an on-base percentage of .480.
Groller has struck out three of the 31 right-handed batters he’s faced this season, but had it working against Pennington at the right time.
“This place was electric and this place always shows out for big games,” Groller said after pitching in front of a record crowd of 6,054. “It’s tough not to play a great game when you have that behind you. Big outs in a game like that and the crowd is going crazy, it’s hard not to get fired up.”
Groller missed 10 games while he took care of soreness in his arm. He returned last weekend and pitched two scoreless innings against Wichita State on Saturday, getting solid work before Tuesday’s big moment.
“My arm was barking at me a little bit and needed a break,” he said. “We just worked it back up and I was able to pitch this weekend and I felt good (Tuesday). It’s good to be back.”
ECU added one more run to its lead in the bottom half of the eighth and held on for a comfortable win.
Also, fellow reliever and teammate Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman has been named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year midseason watch list, the organization announced on Wednesday.
Lunsford-Shenkman leads the nation in ERA (1.00) and has struck out 77 batters with 16 walks in 45.0 innings. The right-hander owns a team-high five saves and leads the team in appearances with 20. The next-best ERA in the nation is held by Arkansas’ Hagen Smith (1.53).
He’s been a go-to arm out of the bullpen of late due to his effectiveness. He’s allowed three earned runs over his last 36.2 innings.
Godwin said Lunsford-Shenkman wasn’t available for Tuesday’s win over N.C. State. The junior threw 74 pitches in the Pirates’ win over William & Mary, then pitched in both games of a doubleheader against Wichita State.
Opponents are batting .213 against the righty.
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