GREENVILLE, N.C. ? Freshman Sthil (pronounced Steel) Sowers tossed his first career complete game and limited UNC Wilmington to six hits as East Carolina defeated the 27th-ranked Seahawks, 6-1, in a pivotal non-conference baseball game Tuesday at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The Pirates snapped a three-game losing skid with the win and improved to 28-13 on the season. The Seahawks, meanwhile, saw their record dip to 29-9-1 and 11-7 in non-conference play.

Sowers (4-3) needed just 99 pitches to shutdown the Seahawks and finished with five strikeouts on the game.

Sophomore lefthander Kyle Lewis (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season, allowing five runs on eight hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings.

Junior Ryan Wood went 2-for3 with two runs scored for the Pirates, who collected 11 hits on the evening. Harrison Eldridge, Brandon Henderson and Jamie Ray each had two hits for ECU.

Senior Shane French led UNCW with two hits.

ECU quickly got on the board in the first on a ground out by senior Corey Kemp, who drove in two runs on the night, that plated Wood, who singled with one out and moved to third on junior Stephen Batts' double to left.

With two out in the fifth East Carolina roughed up Lewis, who had allowed just one unearned run in his previous 7 1/3 innings, for four runs on four hits, a walk and a hit batter. Kemp, Henderson and Ray all had RBI singles and Henderson later scored on a balk to round out the scoring and give the Pirates a 5-0 advantage.

A throwing error by Seahawk senior Daniel Hargrave with two out in the seventh led to ECU's sixth run of the game.

The Pirates threatened to extended their lead in the eighth, loading the bases with none out, but senior reliever Larry Salefsky struck out Kemp and retired the next two batters on ground balls to escape the threat.

Senior Mark Carver averted a shutout for the Seahawks with a homer, his 14th of the season, in the ninth.

The Seahawks open a 9-game homestand on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. start against North Carolina Central.

Notes: Bobby Leeper saw his career-long hitting streak halted at 11 games ... UNCW was only able to get its leadoff hitter on base once in nine innings ... The Seahawks recorded a season-high 17 assists ... Mark Carver moved into seventh all-time with 26 home runs ... UNCW scored its lowest run total since a 3-1 setback at The Citadel (Feb. 27) ... Freshman righthander Justin Bradley (0-1) will make his third start of the season tomorrow night against North Carolina Central.