May 25, 2007

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GREENVILLE, N.C. - Tulane broke open a one-run game in the sixth inning by adding three to its tally and tacked on another in the seventh to pull away from Southern Miss and grab a 6-2 victory in game ten of the 2007 C-USA Baseball Championship at Clark-LeClair Stadium on the campus of East Carolina University. The victory was Tulane head coach Rick Jones' 600th at the helm of the Green Wave and propelled his team into a Saturday semifinal game against No. 2 East Carolina at 12:30 p.m.

Tulane (34-25) grabbed the early lead on an Anthony Scelfo solo home run to right field in the bottom of the first. The Wave then went up 2-0 when Aja Barto hit his sixth home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth.

Southern Miss (38-21) cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the sixth inning after Michael Ewing crushed his seventh home run over the right field fence. The ball not only cleared the outfield wall, but the fence separating the baseball stadium from the football practice fields.

In the sixth, Tulane used two hits to score three runs and pull away from the Golden Eagles.

Tim Guidry led off the bottom of the inning with a double down the right field line and then advanced to third on a ground out by Ty Wallace. Brad Emaus came up next and was intentionally walked before moving to second on a wild pitch from Ben Wade.

Seth Henry pushed across the first run with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Guidry. Jared Dyer then hit a two-run home run to extend his team's lead to 5-1.

The Green Wave added one more tally to make the score 6-1 with a run in the bottom of the seventh.

Southern Miss attempted a late rally, scoring its second run on back-to-back doubles in the ninth by Jordan King and Bo Davis. The surge was not enough as Preston Claiborne shut the door to close out the victory.

Brandon Gomes went seven strong innings for his seventh win of the season. The senior scattered six hits and walked three, while racking up 10 strikeouts. Claiborne came on in relief to pitch the final two innings.

David Clark took the loss for the Golden Eagles, giving up five runs on seven hits, while striking out three in 5.2 innings of work.

Tulane has now advanced to the semifinals for the 10th time in the 12 year history of the Conference USA championship.