Early Saturday NCAA Baseball Roundup

Darryl Lawhorn

Darryl Lawhorn hit a grand slam in the seventh inning and Glenn Tucker threw 8 1/3 shutout innings of relief as East Carolina eliminated No. 3 National Seed Georgia Tech at the Atlanta Regional. Freshman OF Matt Farrington was 3-for-4 with a triple and a pair of RBI to lead Houston past Oral Roberts, 4-2 at the College Station Regional. Southern Miss exploded for nine runs in the top of the first inning and went on to post an 18-0 victory over Murray State.

East Carolina will face the loser of the Stetson-South Carolina game tonight at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Houston will play the loser of the Alabama-Texas A&M game at 7:00 p.m. CDT. Southern Miss will face the loser of the Baylor-Southern U. game at 7:00 p.m. CDT.

EAST CAROLINA 10, GEORGIA TECH 3
By KEITH PARSONS
AP Sports Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- With the bases loaded in a tie game, East Carolina had the right guy at the plate.

Darryl Lawhorn hit a grand slam in the seventh and the Pirates beat Georgia Tech 10-3 Saturday in an elimination game in the NCAA regional in Atlanta.

Lawhorn's 14th homer of the season capped a five-run inning for East Carolina (34-26-1), which has to win another game later in the day to make it to Sunday. The Pirates will face the loser of Saturday's Stetson-South Carolina matchup this evening at 7 p.m.

"Darryl's been clutch for us all year,'' East Carolina coach Randy Mazey said. "He's definitely the guy we want at the plate in that situation.''

The Yellow Jackets (44-18) were the No. 3 national seed but lost two in a row at home; last year, they reached the College World Series for the first time since 1994.

Things went so badly for Georgia Tech that starting pitcher Kyle Bakker (8-3) was forced to bat for the first time in his career. Catcher Andy Hawranick left in the fourth after slamming his head into the railing by the dugout steps while chasing a foul popup. Designated hitter Mike Nickeas came into the lineup as the catcher, putting Bakker in the order.

Bakker struck out to end the sixth. Hawranick lost at least one tooth but wasn't seriously injured.

Glenn Tucker (5-4) took over for starter Ashley Capps with two outs in the first and held Georgia Tech scoreless for the final 8 1-3 innings. He allowed six hits, struck out six and hit three batters.

"As a reliever, you only concentrate on one hitter at a time,'' Tucker said. "I just did that. It was awesome. It's just starting to sink in.''

A reliever most of his career, Tucker started only one game this season and five in his career. He shut down the Yellow Jackets with a sidearm delivery, often freezing batters with a deceptive breaking ball.

"There's not a lot to say except we didn't play good enough to win,'' Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall said. "We couldn't mount any offensive threat against him and they beat us -- period.''

Ryan Jones went 3-for-4 for the Pirates.

East Carolina started its rally against Bakker, who nursed a 3-2 lead into the seventh. Mark Minicozzi led off with a single off the wall in right, and after Kevin O'Sullivan flied out to left, Ben Sanderson walked.

Jamie Paige singled to load the bases, and Ryan Jones walked to force in Minicozzi, tying the game at 3. Brian Burks came in for Bakker and retired Ryan Norwood on a popup to short.

But Lawhorn hit a drive off the light pole in right center, a towering shot that gave the Pirates a lead for the first time in two games.

"I didn't want to hit a grand slam,'' Lawhorn said. "I was just trying to put it in play. I didn't catch all of it, but I knew the ball would carry out there.''

They added three more runs in the eighth on a two-run single by Sanderson and a run-scoring single by Norwood.

"Our team is incredible, the way they never give up,'' Mazey said.

Bakker went 6 1-3 innings and was charged with six runs on seven hits.

"We've been high and low all season,'' he said. "We just didn't do that things that we needed to do.''

Capps got two quick outs in the first before hitting Matt Murton and allowing a single to Nickeas. Remole followed with his second homer in two days -- only his fourth of the year -- and Georgia Tech had a quick 3-0 lead.

Owings and Jeremy Slayden singled before Tucker came on, and Slayden ended the inning when he was caught stealing.

The Yellow Jackets didn't threaten again until the ninth, with Eric Patterson hit a one-out single and moved to third on a double by Steven Blackwood. But Tucker struck out Murton and got Nickeas to fly out to right field, with Sanderson making a diving catch to end the game.



HOUSTON 4, ORAL ROBERTS 2
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Cole Bruce’s RBI single in the eighth inning broke a 1-1 tie and started a three-run rally as the University of Houston baseball took a 4-2 win over Oral Roberts in an elimination game at the NCAA Regional at College Station on Saturday.

Following Bruce’s tie-breaking hit, Gabe Lucas followed with a walk, and both Bruce and Lucas scored when Matt Farrington blasted a triple into the right center gap to hand the Cougars a 4-1 lead.

In the ninth, UH held off a furious ORU rally. The Golden Eagles pulled to within two on Grant Plumley’s RBI-single and loaded the bases with two outs. ORU then appeared to tie the game when David Castillo slapped a ground ball up the middle, but UH shortstop Stuart Musslewhite snared it and flipped the ball to second baseman Brad Sullivan to force OUT oncoming runner Plumley just a second before the runner made it to the bag.

With the win, the Cougars will face the loser of the Texas A&M-Alabama game in another elimination game at 7 p.m., Saturday. The Alabama-A&M was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., Saturday.

UH reliever Ryan Wagner evened his record at 5-5 after allowing one run off three hits with four strikeouts in 1.2 innings of relief.

Although he didn’t receive a decision, UH starter Danny Zell did a masterful job for the Cougars. The Cypress, Texas, native tied his career high with 7.1 innings pitched, his second consecutive start with that many innings, and allowed only one run off seven hits with six strikeouts and a walk.

ORU starter Dallas Martin dropped to 8-7 after giving up three runs off nine hits with two walks in 7.1 innings of work.

Farrington went 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs to lead the Cougars, who rapped out 10 hits in the game. Travis Tully and Hyung Cho each laced two hits in the game for UH.

The Cougars struck for the game’s first run in the sixth inning. Michael Bourn drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on Tully’s bunt single. From there, Cho laced a single into left field to plate Bourn and give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.

The score remained that way until the eighth inning when the Golden Eagles tied the game, thanks to Matt Vanderbosch’s leadoff hit, a walk and two wild pitches.

Matt VanDerBosch went 4-for-4 with a run to lead Oral Roberts, while Dennis Bigley batted 2-for-4. Plumley also batted 2-for-5 with an RBI.


SOUTHERN MISS 18, MURRAY STATE 0
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- No. 2 Southern Miss overcame its first-round upset with an 18-0 victory over No. 4 Murray State, today, and the Eagles advance to tonight's 7 p.m. game against the loser of the Baylor-Southern University game, which starts at 3 p.m.

Playing as the visiting team, Southern Miss (46-15) opened up with a nine-run production in the top of the first inning. Marc Maddox doubled in Matt Shepherd to start the rally, and three consecutive singles by Jeff Cook, Clint King and Jarrett Hoffpauir increased the lead to 5-0.

The Eagles batted around in the first frame, and Maddox collected two additional RBIs with a single on his second at bat of the inning. Cook also added another RBI with a sacrifice fly, concluding the scorefest.

Cliff Russum pitched the complete-game shutout for Southern Miss. He improved to 8-5 on the year, while tossing a six-hitter with one walk and eight strikeouts.

Cook and Maddox were USM's top hitters of the game, as Cook hit 3-for-4 with two runs, a double, his 22nd home run of the season and four RBIs. Maddox finished 3-for-6 with two runs, two doubles and four RBIs.

Hoffpauir batted 2-for-5 with two runs, a home run and three RBIs. Shepherd was 2-for-4 with four runs, a double, a home run and two RBIs.

Charlie Ward and Brett McCutchan led Murray State (25-31) in hitting. Ward hit 2-for-3, and McCutchan was 2-for-4.

MSU starting pitcher Craig Ringwald (5-5) recorded the loss. He faced six hitters in the first inning and gave up four hits, six runs and two walks. The Thoroughbreds were eliminated from the NCAA Regional.

POSTGAME NOTES

Today marked the 19th time this season that Southern Miss has scored 10 or more runs in a game.

Jeff Cook’s eighth inning home run allowed he, Clint King and Brad Willcutt to move into a tie as the most prolific home run trio in USM history. Cook and King each have 22 homers and Willcutt has 11 for a total of 55. In the 1988 season, Sedgewick McCollum (20), Doug Cronk (18) and Fred Colley (17) combined for 55 homers.

USM’s 1-2-3 hitters, Matt Shepherd. Marc Maddox and Jeff Cook, combined to go 8-for-13 with eight runs scored. They hit two home runs, four doubles and had 10 RBI.

Designated hitter Adam Smith was the only Golden Eagle starter that did not record at least one hit. However, he did reach base twice on walks and had just one official at-bat before being relieved by Griff Israel.

Cliff Russum threw his fourth complete game and second shutout of the season. With his eight victory, he moved into a tie with Anthony DeWitt for second on the USM staff in wins.

With five doubles today, Southern Miss has recorded 135 on the season, the third-most in school history. They need just three more to tie the 1991 team that produced 138. Seven different players have now recorded 10 or more doubles.

The Golden Eagles have now scored double-digit runs in all four of their all-time NCAA victories. USM posted 20-13 and 10-9 victories over South Alabama in the 1999 Regional at Tuscaloosa and a 14-10 win over Southwestern Louisiana in 1990 at the Baton Rouge Regional.

The 18-0 win marked the largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game in Conference USA history. It was also just the fourth time that a C-USA team has posted a shutout in NCAA play.

Today’s attendance of 3,757 ranks as the ninth-largest crowd in Pete Taylor Park history.

LSU 13, TULANE 5
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Back-to-back home runs by Clay Harris and Blake Gill sparked a five-run uprising for LSU in the top of the seventh inning as the Fighting Tigers pulled away from archrival Tulane to an 13-5 victory in Game 4 of the Baton Rouge regional Saturday in front of a near-capacity crowd at Alex Box Stadium.

LSU (42-19-1), the No. 2 national seed in the tournament, improved to 5-0 all-time in home post-season games against Tulane and is into the regional championship round, which starts Sunday at 1 p.m. CDT.

To have a chance at revenge over the Tigers, Tulane (44-18) must now defeat UNC Wilmington (39-22) in an elimination game at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The Green Wave defeated the Seahawks 8-3 in Game 2 on Friday. The winner of the Tulane-UNCW game must beat LSU twice to reach the super regional.

The Green Wave (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 23 Collegiate Baseball) appeared ready to overcome a 3-2 LSU lead in the bottom of the sixth when Tony Giarratano led off with a ground ball single and then went to third on a double by Michael Aubrey.

Wes Swackhamer then tapped a soft ground ball down the first base line, and Bumstead alertly picked the ball up and fired home, where Matt Liuzza applied the tag to Giarratano. LSU starting pitcher Nate Bumstead then ended the Wave threat by striking out Brian Bogusevic and getting Tommy Manzella to fly out on a full count.

Ryan Patterson led off the LSU seventh with a ground ball single, and two batters later, Harris launched his 13th home run of the year and second of the tournament over the right field fence to make it 5-2.

Gill followed Harris with a long home run over the right-center field fence for LSU’s fourth back-to-back home runs of the season.

Following the home runs, Jon Zeringue reached base when Giarratano booted his ground ball, and after Ivan Naccarata’s bouncing double moved Zeringue to third, J.C. Holt brought both runners home with a ground ball single past a drawn-in Tulane infield to make it 8-3.

Tulane responded in the bottom of the seventh on a leadoff home run by Nathan Southard and an RBI single by Giarratano, but after Aubrey was hit by Bumstead, Swackhamer flied out to the left field fence.

Bumstead picked up the win and improved to 11-2 on the year by going 7 1/3 innings and scattering nine hits.

In the ninth, Naccarata launched a three-run home to cap a great day for the Canadian, who went 4-for-5 with four runs scored. Every LSU starter except leadoff man Bruce Sprowl had at least one hit, with Patterson going 4-for-6 and Holt going 3-for-4 with three RBI, leaving the Tigers’ sophomore center fielder at 7-for-9 with eight RBI in two regional games.

The Tigers (No. 7 Collegiate Baseball, No. 9 Baseball America, No. 11 ESPN/USA Today) had a chance to blow the game open early, as a pair of hit batters by Tulane starter J.R. Crowel and a fielder’s choice that didn’t result in an out left the bases loaded with no out.

But Crowel, the Conference USA Freshman of the Year, somehow got out of the jam, getting Harris to fly out to short center field, and then retiring Gill and Zeringue to end the frame.

A leadoff double by Naccarata in the second led to the Tigers’ first run when J.C. Holt beat out a bunt, and then Turner Brumby’s throw sailed past Aubrey into right filed, scoring Naccarata from third. Holt scored two batters later when he beat a throw home by Tommy Manzella on a Bruce Sprowl ground ball.

The Wave got on the board in the second on a leadoff home run by Swackhamer, and the teams would trade runs in the third to leave LSU with a 3-2 lead.

LSU handed Crowel his first loss of the year, hitting him for eight runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.