University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagle Baseball Posts 10th Win
3/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Golden Eagle Baseball Posts 10th Win
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss pounded out a season-high 22 hits en route to a 15-2 victory over Louisiana-Monroe at Pete Taylor Park here Tuesday night, in a game shortened to seven innings by the 10-run rule.
The victory improved the Golden Eagle record to 10-2, while the visiting Indians fell to 4-8. Head Coach Corky Palmer?s team already owned a 7-4 victory over the Indians in a game played in a late-February tournament at McNeese State. The Golden Eagles now are 30-11 all time against the Indians, and Palmer improved to 5-1 against the Monroe, La.,-based team.
The same two teams play again Wednesday, with game time set for 3 p.m. The Eagles also stay home for the coming weekend, hosting Eastern Illinois in a three-game set that starts with a 6:30 p.m., Friday game.
After both teams failed to score in the first inning of tonight?s game, Southern Miss effectively put the game out of reach with four runs in both the second and third innings. The visitors picked up their only two runs in the top of the third on a homer by Jaime Estrada, to cut the Golden Eagle margin to two. But the four Southern Miss runs in the bottom of the inning, a single run in the fourth, two more in the fifth and another four-spot in the sixth shortened the game.
Sophomore Bob McCrory made his first start a productive one by going the full seven innings, giving up just two runs on five hits, walking none and striking out a career-high 10 Indian batters.
McCrory evened his record at 1-1, while Matt Guillory, the first of four Louisiana-Monroe hurlers, took the loss and dropped to 0-1. He lasted three and a third innings, gave up 10 hits, eight runs (seven earned) and struck out just one.
And as good as the Golden Eagle pitching was, the hitting was equally impressive. Seven different Southern Miss players had multiple-hit games, led by Griff Israel, who put together a perfect five-for-five night, drove in a pair of runs and scored twice. He also had one of three Southern Miss doubles, his fifth of the season. Allen Winningham picked up his eighth double of the season and Clint Stoy his second.
In addition to Israel?s five-hit game, Carlos Valasquez had four hits, including a base-clearing triple in the third inning. Winningham, Jeff Cook and Stoy all had three each and Brad Willcutt and Jarrett Hoffpauir added two each.
Cook continued his torrid hitting pace with a 3-for-5 batting performance, to go with 13-for-18 performance last week that earned him Louisville Slugger and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association National Hitter of the Week and Conference USA Hitter of the Week.
