East Carolina University
Southern Miss
Southern Miss Completes Sweep Of ECU
May 09, 2010 | Baseball
May 9, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -Dillon Day's RBI single to right center scored B.A. Vollmuth in the bottom of the eighth to complete Southern Miss' come from behind win over East Carolina, 7-6, Sunday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park. With the win the Golden Eagles extend their current winning streak to 11 games and records their third straight Conference USA series sweep improving to 29-17 overall and 11-7 in league action, while the Pirates suffer their fourth straight defeat and fall to 27-21 and 8-10.
Trailing 6-5 in the eighth inning, Southern Miss scored a pair of runs to take a 7-6 lead. Kameron Brunty reached on an infield single to first then took third on Vollmuth's single to right center. Mark Ellis followed with a single through the right side scoring Brunty and put runners on first and second with one out. Day sliced a single that fell short of Philip Clark in right field plating Vollmuth from second for the game-winning run.
Jay Myrick (3-0) picked up the win after tossing four innings no-hit relief and walking three. Collin Cargill notched his eighth save of the season allowing a pair of hits with one strikeout in an inning of work. Starter Ryan McNamara lasted one inning allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits with a walk and a strikeout before being pulled for Cody Schlagel (3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 4 Ks) in the second.
Pirate closer Seth Simmons suffered the loss and fell to 2-3 on the year. The right-hander pitched a career-high 5 2/3 innings allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits with three walks and three punch outs. Kevin Brandt lasted two innings giving up four runs (all earned) on three hits with five walks. Sophomore Mike Wright made his second appearance on the weekend recording the final out (strikeout) in the eighth.
ECU's potential rally in the top of the ninth fell short when Cargill struck out Devin Harris with Kyle Roller on third and John Wooten on second. Corey Thompson singled up the middle to start the frame collecting his third hit of the game and Roller followed with his third base knock to right center. Wooten's sac bunt forced Thompson out at third and Jared Avchen's ground out to third pushed the runners up 90 feet setting up the showdown between Cargill and Harris.
For the first time in the series ECU scored first putting up three runs in the top of the first inning. Trent Whitehead drew a lead off walk, promptly swiped second then moved to third on Thompson's base hit up the middle before trotting home on Roller's shot through the right side. Wooten loaded the bases when he reached on a fielder's choice but that McNamara under threw Joey Archer at third trying for the force out of Thompson. Avchen followed with a sac fly to center plating Thompson and Philip Clark laid down a bunt single towards third that pushed across Roller.
Brandt worked himself into a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the first. After retiring the first two hitters, Brandt issued back-to-back walks to Vollmuth and Ellis before plunking Day to load the bases. But the lefty got out of the tight squeeze when he snared a hot short hop grounder off the bat of Archer to end the inning.
Thompson put the Pirates up 4-0, with a single through the left side that scored Chris Gosik from third. Gosik led off the second with a double to right center then took third when Whitehead grounded back to Schlagel for the first out of the frame.
Consecutive two-out singles to right center pulled the Golden Eagles within one, 4-3, in the bottom of the second inning. Isaac Rodriguez led off with a walk then took second on Travis Graves ground out. After Tyler Koelling walked to put runners on the corners, Brandt got Brunty to pop out to third for the second out. Tyler Walker laced a shot to right center scoring Rodriguez and Vollmuth followed with another base hit to right center clearing the bases.
ECU extended its lead in the third to 6-3 on a pair of ground outs to Walker at second base. Avchen led off with a single to right then moved to third on Harris' double to right center just before Clark and Freeman recorded RBI ground outs scoring both Avchen and Harris.
The scoring continued in the bottom half of the third stanza when Day crossed home on Graves ground out to deep short putting the score at 6-4 in favor of the Pirates. Day led off with an opposite field double down the left field line and took second on Rodriguez' sac bunt back to Simmons before touching the plate on Graves at-bat.
Southern Miss loaded the bases in the sixth with no outs but was only able to muster one run pulling within one, 6-5. Graves walked to start the innings the Tyler Koelling reached on a fielding error by Freeman putting runners in scoring position. Brunty loaded the bases with the second walk from Simmons in the stanza. Simmons recorded back-to-back strikeouts getting both Travis Creel and Vollmuth swinging. Ellis singled through the left side scoring Graves and Simmons got Day to ground out back to him to end the frame.
Offensively the Pirates banged out 10 hits and scored a run in the first three innings before Southern Miss' bull pen scattered three hits over the final six frames. Roller (67 career) and Thompson (24 career) each recorded multiple hits, while Clark drove in a pair of runs recording his first career multi-RBI game.
The Pirates will be back on the diamond Tuesday, May 11 when they travel to Burlington, N.C. to square off against in-state foe Elon. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. (EDT).
