East Carolina University
Tulane
Eldridge's Blast Lifts ECU Over Tulane
May 24, 2007 | Baseball
May 24, 2007
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Harrison Eldridge hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to help No. 2 seed East Carolina come from behind for a 4-2 opening round victory over No. 7 seed Tulane in Wednesday night action at Clark-LeClair Stadium in the 2007 Conference USA Championships.
With runners on first and second and two-outs, Eldridge took a 1-2 offering from Shooter Hunt over the right field wall giving the Pirates (37-20) a 3-2 advantage. Jake Dean legged out an infield single with one out and Drew Schieber followed with a walk. After Brandon Henderson, who pinch hit for David Forbes, flew out to right field moving Dean to third, Eldridge smacked his sixth homer of the year.
Bailey Daniels improved to 4-1 on the season after working 1 1/3 innings of relief giving up one hit and striking out one. First-team All C-USA performer Shane Mathews worked a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts to save his 13th game in 15 opportunities. Starter T.J. Hose worked 5 1/3 innings allowing six hits and two runs with three walks and five strikeouts before being lifted for Jason Neitz, who struck out both batters he faced in the sixth frame. Neitz finished the game allowing one hit in 1 1/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts.
Shooter Hunt fell to 6-6 on the season despite allowing four runs on four hits with nine strikeouts, including six in a row at one point from the end of the fifth frame to the beginning of the seventh. He worked 7 1/3 innings with four free passes before giving way to Aaron Loup in the eighth to pitch the final two-thirds of an inning.
Ty Wallace gave Tulane (32-25) a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth with a single to left field that scored Tim Guidry and Bran Emaus. Guidry led off inning with a single down the right field line then moved to second on Emaus' infield single to third. Designated hitter Warren McFadden laid down a sac bunt to Hose to advance both runner 90 feet setting up the games first runs.
Jamie Ray padded the Pirates lead in eighth with his single to left field that plated Batts from second pushing the score to 4-2. Batts, who extended his current hit streak to 23 games in the third inning, picked up his 16th multi-hit game of the year and 31st of his career with his single up the middle with one out.
The Pirates move on to face Southern Miss in the 7:30 p.m. (EDT) game after the No. 3 seed Golden Eagles defeated No. 6 UAB 9-5 in game three of the tournament. ECU will send junior lefty Dustin Sasser to the mound, while Southern Miss will counter with right-hander Barry Bowden. Tulane will square off against UAB at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday in the second elimination game of the day.
