CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Brad Mincey allowed one run in five innings of relief and East Carolina beat St. John’s 6-4 Sunday to advance to the championship of the Charlottesville Regional.
Mincey relieved starter Kevin Brandt with a runner on in the fifth, got a huge assist from catcher Zach Wright when he threw out a runner trying to steal and then picked another off first base, and settled down, allowing just one more hit and a run without a hit to finish it.
“Coming in in a situation like that, you just want to keep the score where it is,” Mincey said. “Zach helped me out of that first inning by getting two quick outs without me really having to get a batter out to get out of that inning. I just let the defense work behind me.”
Coach Billy Godwin said it’s what Mincey has been doing all year.
“He’s been our go-to guy all year long out of the pen,” Godwin said.
Mincey (6-4) allowed just two hits, walked two and hit a batter. The Red Storm scored their lone run against him in the seventh with a hit batsman, two walks and an infield grounder.
The Pirates (41-20) earned the chance to play top-seeded Virginia (51-9) later Sunday, needing to win to earn a winner-take-all game for the regional title Monday night.
They will need to solve the Cavaliers pitchers the way they hit St. John’s staff.
Corey Thompson had three hits, including a two-run homer, and Chase McDonald drove in the go-ahead run for the Pirates with an infield grounder in the fifth inning, making it 4-3.
The Pirates had 11 hits and won despite leaving 12 runners on base.
St. John’s (36-22) rallied from three runs down to tie it in the fourth, but managed just two hits against Mincey (6-4). The Red Storm left eight men on base, and had chances to the end.
Joe Panik, their best hitter, grounded to first with a runner on base to end it.
“You kind of just felt all weekend that we never got that big hit,” said cleanup hitter Jeremy Baltz, who drove in a pair of runs — one when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and later when he grounded into a force at third with the bases loaded and one out.
Eddie Medina (3-2), who relieved Brendan Lobban to start the fourth for St. John’s, made mistakes in the fifth that allowed East Carolina to go ahead. After fielding a one-out dribbler by Trent Whitehead, he threw into him, allowing Whitehead to reach. A wild pitch allowed Thompson to take third, and he scored easily when McDonald grounded out to deep shortstop.
“We didn’t play good baseball this week,” St. John’s coach Ed Blankmeyer said. “In baseball, you just don’t give things away, and we just gave too many things away this weekend.”
The Red Storm got a pair of hits to start the fifth, but Panik was thrown out by Wright trying to steal second. After Mincey replaced Brandt and allowed a single to right by Baltz, Wright picked him off first when he strayed too far on an apparent missed hit and run attempt.
Wright, remarkably, has started all 61 games at catcher for the Pirates this season.
Mike Ussery drove in an insurance run in the ninth with a bloop single to right.
In the sixth, the Pirates made it 5-3 on a single, two walks and Philip Clark’s safety squeeze bunt with the bases loaded. Medina got a groundout to escape more with the bases full.
St. John’s rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third with the help of two throwing errors by Brandt. He first threw wildly to second on a comebacker, trying to start a double play, and then made a wild pickoff throw, allowing Matt Wessinger to take third. He scored on Jimmy Brennan’s single, and Jeremy Baltz was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded later in the inning.
The Red Storm tied it on Frankie Schwindel’s run-scoring single in the fourth.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the second on Jack Reinheimer’s RBI bloop single, and made it 3-0 in the third when Corey Thompson followed a walk with a home run to left, his sixth.