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Baseball Falls To East Carolina In C-USA Tourney Semifinals, 9-4
May 26, 2007
Box Score in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. - A trio of errors in the first and struggles out of the bullpen proved to be a bad combination for the Green Wave as the Tulane University baseball team dropped a 9-4 decision to host East Carolina in the Conference USA Tournament Semifinals Saturday afternoon at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Freshman southpaw Aaron Loup struck out three and allowed just two earned runs on five hits and a pair of walks in a 6.1-inning start, and both senior first baseman Tim Guidry and junior third baseman Brad Emaus hit solo home runs to lead the Green Wave charge. The difference in the ballgame, however, was the Pirates' ability to score early and late as East Carolina (39-20) advances to the Conference USA Championship Game. "Both Timmy and Brad with home runs got us there," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said of the Green Wave's effort to battle back to tie the game at 3-all after five innings. "It was just one of those things where East Carolina is playing at home and they're on a roll. I have no issue whatsoever with our effort. I thought we played as well as we can play. I thought we played with a lot of confidence, that we could win this thing, and I believed it."
The Green Wave's early miscues led to three unearned runs, and East Carolina plated a pair of runs in the seventh to break a 3-all tie. Tulane cut the lead to 5-4 with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but the Pirates answered with three more runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to put the game away. With the loss, Tulane was eliminated from the C-USA Tourney and concludes the 2007 season with a 34-26 record. East Carolina centerfielder Harrison Eldridge opened the game with a leadoff walk, and Loup got shortstop Ryan Wood to hit a can-of-corn fly ball to center for an apparent out in the games second at-bat. Sophomore left fielder Anthony Scelfo and sophomore centerfielder Aja Barto collided on the play, however, allowing East Carolina to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Second baseman Stephen Batts followed with an RBI single to right, but Green Wave junior right fielder Grayden Greiner misplayed the ball which allowed Wood to score all the way from second. From there, designated hitter Kyle Roller hit a potential double-play ball to second, but another error allowed Batts to touch the paystation from 180 feet away. "We got behind early and had a communication issue there," Jones said. "Aja said he was yelling as loud as he could and Anthony couldn't hear him. With that crowd out there (in the area beyond the outfield wall known as `The Jungle'), I don't know, but that hurt us." Tulane chipped away at the Pirates' lead with solo home runs by Guidry in the third and Emaus in the fourth, and the Green Wave tied the game in the fifth. Griener reached on a leadoff error, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of junior shortstop Cat Everett and scored on an RBI-single by Guidry. The Wave had a chance to break the tie with runners at first and second and only one out, but East Carolina starter Josh Dowdy got senior catcher Ty Wallace to line into a 5-4 double play to escape the stanza without any more damage done. After a scoreless sixth, East Carolina reclaimed the lead in the seventh as third baseman Drew Schieber hammered a solo homer to right to open the stanza before Batts drove in Eldridge from second with a two-out, RBI-double to the gap in left central. Trailing 5-3, Tulane cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the seventh when Scelfo lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Barto, who led off the stanza with a single. ECU reliever Bailey Daniels came out of the bullpen following Scelfo's sacrifice and got a foul-ball out to strand the tying runner at third. The Pirates made the missed opportunity hurt as East Carolina plated runs in the eighth on the strength of an RBI-double by pinch-hitter Jake Dean and run-scoring singles off the bats of catcher Cory Kemp and Eldridge. East Carolina added an insurance run in the ninth when right fielder Ryan Tousley hit a two-out single through the right side of the infield, advanced to second on a walk by reserve catcher David Forbes and scored on an RBI-single by infielder Drew Schieber to account for the final score. "I still felt the momentum was with us," Emaus said. "After they put the three-spot up in the first, we just kept coming back and coming back, and I really felt we had them on their heels. I know that sometimes things just don't go your way and I that's pretty much how it happened." Lost in the Pirates' late-inning onslaught was the performance of Loup. After allowing the three unearned runs in the first, he did not allow a hit over the next three innings, pitched his way around a pair of hits in the fifth and allowed just one single in a scoreless sixth. Loup (2-1) was tagged with the loss, however, after allowing the homer to Schieber and his walk to Eldridge came around to score when Batts ripped a double off senior reliever Daniel Latham. "I thought we had a great pitching performance from Aaron Loup, and that bodes well for the future," Jones said. "He just came on in the last month to six weeks. He's gotten better and better with every outing. Today, he showed why we're so excited about having him in a starting role next year. "When you throw him in there with Shooter Hunt and Preston Claiborne, the rest of the freshmen we have coming back and the recruiting class that we have coming in - which we're real excited about - it's got a chance to be a very special pitching staff." Dowdy (5-1) earned the victory after allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk while striking out one in six-plus innings of work. Jason Neitz went two-thirds of an inning in the sixth, Daniels allowed just one hit in an inning and a third out of the bullpen and Shane Matthews posted a strikeout in a scoreless ninth. East Carolina will take on top-seeded Rice in the C-USA Championship Game on Sunday with first pitch slated for noon (CDT). While both teams are all but locks to earn a berth to the NCAA Regionals, the winner of that ballgame will receive the league's automatic bid to the postseason. The game will be televised on tape-delay on College Sports Television (DirecTV Channel 610, DISH Network Channel 152). |
 
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