Late-Inning Rally Helps Pirates Survive Charlotte
May 22, 2003 | Baseball
NEW ORLEANS -- John Poppert scored the go-ahead run on a suicide squeeze bunt by Ben Sanderson as part of a six-run eighth inning to lift East Carolina over Charlotte, 8-5, in a Conference USA Tournament elimination game here Thursday morning.
The Pirates advance to play the loser of Thursday's Southern Miss-Houston game Friday at 4 p.m. EST, breaking a recent trend where two of the last three previous year's tournament champions were the first team eliminated.
"Anybody who has followed us throughout the season knows that the later innings are when we swing the bats best," stated Pirate head coach Randy Mazey.
With the game knotted a four-all, Sanderson's squeeze bunt gave the Pirates the lead back for the first time since leading 2-1 at the end of the third. Jamie Paige and Ryan Jones followed with consecutive doubles to drive in a total of three runs.
Trailing 4-2 to start the eighth, Ryan Norwood and Darryl Lawhorn hit back-to-back singles and then loaded the bases on a one-out, four pitch walk to Poppert. Mark Minicozzi then drew a base on balls to plate pinch runner Jason Tourangeau before Lawhorn scored the tying run on an RBI-single by Kevin O'Sullivan.
Charlotte (21-28) took a 3-2 lead in the fourth as Brad Lamm and Thomas Bowker each recorded RBI-hits.
Paige drove in his first of three runs in the second on a base hit to right, to stake ECU (32-24-1) to a 2-0 lead. Paige went 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored. Lawhorn also collected three hits.
Neal Sears (6-5) won for the fourth time in his last five decisions. The only run he allowed was a solo home run by George Sandel to leadoff the eighth.
Ashley Capps limited the 49ers to five hits and four runs in the first six innings. Although he didn't strike out a batter, Capps tossed just 66 pitches and walked only one.
Relief pitcher Eric Walker (0-5) took the loss as he gave up four runs in 0.2 innings pitched. Charlotte used five pitchers total, including four in the eighth innings as the Pirates pounded out five hits in the frame. ECU finished with 12 hits in the game.
