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Baseball Falls To East Carolina In C-USA Tourney Opener, 4-2
May 23, 2007
Box Score in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. - For 104 pitches, Tulane starter Shooter Hunt was almost perfect. On pitch No. 105, however, a 2-0 Green Wave advantage turned into a 3-2 deficit as Pirates centerfielder Harrison Eldridge hammered a three-run homer to right field with two out in the seventh inning in the Green Wave's 4-2 loss to host East Carolina in the opening round of the 2007 Conference USA Tournament at Clark-LeClair Stadium. The Green Wave out-hit the Pirates, 8-5, but four of the East Carolina hits came in the seventh and eighth innings, including Eldridge's bomb and an RBI-single off the bat of left fielder Jamie Ray in the eighth to provide the final score. With the loss, Tulane falls to 32-25 on the year and will play UAB in an elimination game on Thursday with first pitch slated for 11:30 a.m. "Shooter pitched tremendous, and we played well defensively," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "But the story again was our lack of offense. We did not stretch the lead when we had the opportunity, didn't have a couple of situations there from an execution standpoint offensively that we didn't do a good job with and once again, it got us." Tulane led 2-0 courtesy of a two-run single by senior catcher Ty Wallace in the sixth, but the game would take a sudden turn in the seventh. Hunt had tossed six scoreless frames to open the ballgame, but after Ray to open the stanza, gave up a single to third baseman Jake Dean and walked second baseman Drew Schieber.
Pinch hitter Brandon Henderson put a charge into a Hunt offering in the ensuing at-bat which amounted to a deep fly ball to right, but Eldridge would get all of it in the next plate appearance to provide the game-winning hit. "We had been going inside on (Eldridge) all night," Hunt said of the game-changing at-bat. "I made a good pitch. I hit the spot. He just turned on it and got a good piece of it. Sometimes you win. I won the first two at-bats. He won the last one. It turned out that one mattered the most." Hunt (6-6) struck out nine in a 7.1-inning start and held East Carolina to just one hit through his first six innings on the mound. He pitched his way into a jam in the second inning with a pair of hit batsmen and a walk to load the bases with only one away, but got out of the inning without any harm done with an infield pop-up and a 4-3 groundout. He pitched his way around a two-out hit in the third, and faced the minimum over the next three innings. He fanned the finale two batters he faced in the fifth and struck out the side in the sixth before the game-changing seventh. Wallace was one of three Tulane players to go 2-for-4 for the game, joining junior third baseman Brad Emaus and sophomore left fielder Anthony Scelfo. Scelfo posted the lone extra-base hit of the night for the Green Wave with a one-out double in the fifth. Tulane stranded seven runners on base during the ballgame, including four in scoring position. Double plays hurt the Green Wave cause as Tulane bounced into a pair of 4-6-3 twin-killings, including one of the inning-ending variety with two on and only one out in the fifth. Tulane's lone crooked number on the scoreboard came in the sixth when senior first baseman Tim Guidry and Emaus hit back-to-back singles to open the game. The pair advanced a base on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of sophomore designated hitter Warren McFadden, and Wallace came through with a clutch single to break a scoreless tie. "Ty Wallace has played so well for us down the stretch," Jones said. "Tonight, we finally get a bunt down and it works for us with Ty behind knocking in two runs. We didn't have that opportunity in the eighth, and you see the result is the opposite. It comes down to us executing and putting ourselves in a position where a guy like Ty Wallace can knock in runs and give a guy like Shooter the support he deserves." Wallace's two-run single chased East Carolina starter T.J. Hose from the game, and Jason Neitz got the Pirates out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts. Bailey Daniels (4-1) earned the win for the Pirates after allowing just one hit and posting a strikeout in one and a third scoreless innings. Shane Matthews picked up his 13th save with a perfect ninth. If Tulane defeats the Blazers on Thursday, the Green Wave will advance to play the loser of tomorrow's Southern Miss/East Carolina matchup on Friday with first pitch slated for 5:30 p.m. A Thursday loss would conclude the Green Wave's season. All of the Green Wave's tournament games will be broadcast on the flagship radio station of Tulane baseball, WRHB 88.3 FM, and the contests can also be heard live on the website at www.TulaneGreenWave.com to paid members of the All-Access Pass. In addition, live stats are available on-line for free via GameTracker. Sunday's championship game will be televised tape delayed on College Sports Television (DirecTV Channel 610, DISH Network Channel 152) and first pitch of the game is slated for 1 pm (CDT). |
 
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