Flashes Ride Six-Run Seventh to Series Opening Win

Friday, February 28

Greenville, NC

4:30 PM

Kent State University

2-5

East Carolina

3-6

Kent State

East Carolina

Flashes Ride Six-Run Seventh to Series Opening Win

2/28/2025 8:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

GREENVILLE- The Kent State Golden Flashes got a huge 7-6 win Friday night against the East Carolina Pirates. The win marks the 350^th of head coach Jeff Duncan's tenure at Kent State.

The game started as a pitcher's duel between Kent State's Gavin Jones and East Carolina's Ethan Norby with each team's ace opening the game with three scoreless innings.

Brody Williams got the Flashes going in the bottom of the third inning when he threw out two would be base stealers at second base to keep it scoreless going into the fourth. Williams came up to hit in the top of the fourth and laced a double off the wall in left-center field to give the Flashes a one run lead.

The Pirates would score two-runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth to jump out to a 4-1 lead.

The Flashes hit around and got into the Pirates bullpen in the top of the seventh and exploded for six runs. The first three came off the bat of Alejandro Covas who got a hanging breaking ball he didn't miss and parked it over the wall in leftfield to tie the game.

Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe and Luke Matthews rattled back-to-back singles following the Covas homer to bring up Jake Casey. The senior showed off his power to the opposite field on a three-run homer of his own to give the Flashes a 7-4 lead.

Senior closer, Peyton Cariaco entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with runners on first and third with no outs. The left-hander limited the Pirates offense to just two runs in the inning to keep Kent State in the lead.

East Carolina threatened with bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but Peyton Cariaco got the Pirates batter to ground in a game-ending 6-4-3 double play. The double play was as textbook as they come going Matthews to Ripken Reese, to Hunter Klotz.

The win improves the Flashes record to 2-5 and snaps the team's five-game losing streak. Caden Leonard earned the first win and Cariaco earned his second save of the season.

Kent State is back in action on Saturday Mar 1 to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies. First pitch is set for noon ET.

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