East Carolina University
Southern Mississippi
Pirates Squander Lead Falling 8-5 To USM
May 06, 2006 | Baseball
May 6, 2006
HATTIESBURG, MISS. - Toddric Johnson's two-out infield single in the bottom of the seventh plated Chris Matesich and gave Southern Miss the go ahead run as they took game two from East Carolina 8-5 Saturday night at Pete Taylor Park.
Ryan Belanger remained perfect on the season picking up his seventh win in a relief appearance as he worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits with a pair of strikeouts and five walks. Southern Miss (33-16, 9-8) starter Scott Massey lasted just 2 1/3 inning after giving up four runs on four hits. Senior close Daniel Best pitched a perfect ninth inning collecting his tenth save of the year.
Kevin Rhodes got the loss for ECU (28-19, 7-10) and fell to 3-3 on the year after allowing one run in one inning of relief. Pirate starter Shane Mathews struck out seven batters in 5 2/3 innings, but allowed five runs on eight hits before being replaced by Rhodes. Scott Andrews made his second appearance of the series pitching to two batters, before Josh Dowdy came in for relief. Dowdy allowed two runs and was pulled for Mike Flye, who worked another strong inning recording one strike out and one walk.
Offensively the Golden Eagles had four players with multi-hit games. Johnson was 2-for-4 with two RBI, Michael Ewing was 2-for-4, Luke Adkins went 2-for-3 with a home run and Brian Dozier finished the game going 2-for-2.
Adam Witter paced the Pirates offensively going 3-for-3 from the plate with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Jake Smith and Harrison Eldridge also collected a pair of hits on the night.
Johnson picked up his second hit of the game in the bottom of the seventh, a single that scored Chris Matesich for a 6-5 Southern Miss lead.
After a one-hour and 15-minute rain delay, the Pirates wasted little time in getting on the board when Witter smacked his tenth home run of the season, a two-run shot to left-center, in the first inning giving ECU a 2-0 lead.
The Pirates plated three runs in the top of the third to extend its lead to 5-0. Smith connected on a Massey fast ball and launched his ninth home run of the season, a two-run shot, scoring Eldridge. Brandon Henderson added one more run on a sacrifice fly to left-center that scored Witter.
Dozier put Southern Miss on the board when he laced a double down the left field line scoring Bo Davis in the third.
In the fifth inning Dozier drove in his second run of the game with a single to left that scored Adkins putting the score at 5-2 in favor of ECU.
Jody Blount tied the game at five in the sixth inning with a single to right field that scored Ewing. Earlier in the inning Johnson singled to left scoring Trey Sutton, who led the inning off with a double and Adkins' sacrifice fly scored Johnson.
Southern Miss added two more runs in the bottom half of the eighth on back-to-back home runs from Kevin Coker and Adkins securing an 8-5 win.
ECU and Southern Miss will wrap-up the three-game series Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. (EST).
