Houston Wins The 2008 Entergy C-USA Baseball Championship
May 25, 2008
Box: HTML, PDF | Quotes NEW ORLEANS, La. - Houston left fielder Jake Stewart scored on a one-out fielder's choice ground ball off the bat of second baseman Ryan Lormand as the fourth-seeded Cougars baseball team won the 2008 Entergy Conference USA Championship with a 3-2 win over sixth-seeded Marshall Sunday afternoon at the new Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Marshall entered the league championship as the tournament's No. 6 seed, but made a Cinderella run at the title by winning three consecutive elimination games, including a 5-3 decision over Southern Miss earlier in the day. The clock finally hit midnight, however, and Houston shattered the Thundering Herd's glass slipper in the bottom of the eighth. With the score knotted at 2-all after seven innings, Stewart opened the bottom of the eighth by hitting what appeared to be a routine ground ball to shortstop, but Marshall's Adam Yeager's throw to first was off line and Stewart reached via error. Third baseman Bryan Pounds followed with a walk, and Stewart was able to advance to third on a deep fly ball to right by Jimmy Cesario to set up the game-winning play. From there Cougar reliever Chase Dempsay sat the Thundering Herd down in order in the ninth to spark the Houston celebration. With the win, the Cougars (39-22) earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals, which begin on Friday, May 30, at sites which will be announced later today. Marshall, meanwhile, concludes its season 30-30-1. The tournament title is the third overall for the Cougars and the first since 2000. With both teams having to come out of the loser's bracket, pitching was at a premium and it took Houston five hurlers to claim the championship. Dempsay (6-3) earned the win after tossing 2.0 perfect innings, including a strikeout of Marshall catcher Tommy Johnson to start the ninth. After two scoreless innings, the two teams traded runs in the third as Herd centerfielder Nate Lape lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Yeager in the top of the inning before Pounds drove in catcher Chris Wallace with a RBI-single to center in the bottom of the frame. The score remained that way until the sixth when Marshall reclaimed the lead on an RBI-single to right off the bat of designated hitter Kurt Lipton. Marshall plated just one run in the frame as the Herd tallied five hits in the frame but had a pair of runners thrown out at third base following singles to right field. On both occasions, Houston outfielder Bryan Tully was able to field the ball cleanly and fire perfect strikes to the hot corner to nail Victor Gomez and Brandon Casamassima trying to move from first to third. The lead would not last long, though, as Lormand sparked a two-out rally in the home half of the inning by getting hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Zak Presley. Barrett Bruce came out of the bullpen to retired Marshall in order in the seventh, but the Thundering Herd had a chance to break the deadlock in the eighth when Gomez drew a leadoff walk and advanced a pair bases on a sacrifice bunt and a ground ball to short. With the go-ahead run 90 feet away, Lipton hit a rocket shot that was headed into left centerfield for an apparent RBI single. Cougar shortstop Blake Kelso, had other ideas as went parallel to the ground to snare the ball and strand the runner at third. Marshall out-hit the Cougars, 8-5, including a two-hit performance by Valle, but it was not enough to overcome the opportune Houston club. Of the Cougars' five hits, two were of the RBI variety and the final run came on a potential double-play ball that was nullified by Lormand's speed. Andrew Hancock (3-3) was saddled with the loss after allowing a run on no hits and a walk while striking out one in a third of an inning. Like Houston, Marshall used five pitchers on the day, and got a stellar performance by starter Dan Straily. Pitching in his second game of the day and third of the tournament, allowed just two run on four hits and walk while striking out a pair in 5.2 innings. For the tourney, Straily posted a 3.52 ERA, a .189 opponent batting average and seven strikeouts, one win, one loss and one save in 15.1 innings of work. 2008 CONFERENCE USA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
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