Tulane Eliminates Southern Miss From Tournament
5/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Tulane Eliminates Southern Miss From Tournament
KINSTON, N.C - No. 5-seed Tulane scored eight runs in the first two innings and added four more in the sixth inning, to eliminate No. 4-seed Southern Miss, 12-5, from the 2002 Conference USA Tournament, today, at Grainger Stadium.
The Green Wave (35-24) advance to the finals of bracket play, facing No. 1-seed Houston, tommorrow, having to win both games to advance to the championship game. Southern Miss (36-22) now waits to see if its name appears on the NCAA Regional Tournament bracket on Monday.
"This was a huge win for us today," Tulane Head Coach Rick Jones said. "We are starting to get healthy. We are playing like the club that everyone around the program thought we would be at the beginning of the season."
Tulane scored 12 runs on 13 hits and committed one error, while Southern Miss scored five runs on 10 hits and committed four errors. There were nine extra base hits, including six homers, three by each team.
James Jurries led Tulane with a 4-for-5 performance at the plate, scoring three runs and driving in four. Michael Aubrey finished with two hits in four at bats, scoring two runs and hitting two home runs. Jarrett Hoffpauir, Jeff Cook and Clint Stoy led Southern Miss with two hits each. Cook hit his 16th home run of the season, driving in a team-high two runs.
"I thought going into today, it would be a hitter's day and it was," Southern Miss Head Coach Corky Palmer said. "We went back to being a poor defensive club, which didn't help. I thought we had to score eight runs to win. It was hot with the wind blowing out, it changes this time of year."
Beau Richardson (6-5) earned his sixth win of the season, including his second-straight over the Golden Eagles. He pitched 5.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits, walking four and striking out two. Joey Charron came on in relief in the sixth inning, pitching 2.2 innings, giving up two runs on five hits, walking one and striking out two. Will Walter finished the game, pitching the final inning, giving up one hits and striking out one.
Daniel Stewart (5-5) dropped the decision for Southern Miss, pitching 1.2 innings, giving up six runs, four earned, on five hits and striking out three. Brent Leach pitched one-third of an inning, giving up two unearned runs, before Brian Hurley came on in relief in the third, pitching 3.2 innings, giving up three runs on four hits. Cliff Russum pitched one-third of an inning, giving up one run on one hit, before Anthony Dewitt and Charlie Rogers each pitched an inning of scoreless relief..
Tulane's James Jurries, Conference USA Player of the Year, put Tulane on the scoreboard in the first inning, hitting a three-run homer to right field after Jon Kaplan and Aaron Feldman reached on singles. The Green Wave's five-run second inning was keyed by Michael Aubrey's two-run homer to left center after Jurries reached on his second single of the game. An RBI single by Tom Manzella drove in Turner Brumby, who singled to left center, for the third run ofthe inning. Two errors by the Golden Eagles allowed Kaplan to reach and Manzella to score. Feldman's sacrifice fly to left field, plated Kaplan for the fifth run of the game.
Southern Miss cut into the Tulane lead, scoring three runs in the fourth inning. Matt Shepherd walked before Cook hit a homer to deep center, followed by Brad Willcutt's solo homer to deep center field.
The Green Wave widened their lead to 12-3, scoring four runs in the sixth inning. Scott Bormaster led off the inning with a double to left field, moved to third on Manzella's sacrifice hit and then scored on Kaplan's double to left. Kaplan scored when Jurries reached on his fourth hit of the game, before Aubrey blasted his second homer of the game to left center.
Southern Miss scored two more runs in the seventh inning, when Carlos Velasquez hit a homer off the scoreboard over the right field wall. Hoffpauir doubled off the left center field wall and then scored on Shepherd's single up the middle.