University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagles Drop 7-3 Decision To Pirates
5/4/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Golden Eagles Drop 7-3 Decision To Pirates
GREENVILLE, N.C. ? Southern Miss managed only four hits, and three runs in the final game of a three-game Conference USA series and the result was a 7-3 loss to the East Carolina Pirates, who took two of the three weekend games.
The loss also marked the first time this season that Head Coach Corky Palmer's team had lost back-to-back games.
With the loss, Southern Miss dropped to 36-13 overall and 18-6 in league play, while the Pirates improved to 28-20 overall and 14-10 in the conference.
The visiting Eagles grabbed a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Clint King opened the inning with a solo home run, his 16th of the season. Griff Israel then walked, took second on a fielder's choice grounder by Jarrett Hoffpauir, and then moved to third on a throwing error. He scored the second run of the inning on a Carlos Velasquez sacrifice fly. Hoffpauir then stole second, took third on a throwing error and scored what would prove to be Southern Miss' final run of the game on a Matt Shepherd double.
East Carolina struck back for two runs in the bottom of the same inning, tied the score with a single run in the fourth, took the lead with another run in the bottom of the sixth and then iced the game with three more runs in the seventh inning.
After the three hits and three runs in the second, Southern Miss batters managed just one hit over the final seven innings. Israel had two hits for the Eagles who produced their third fewest hits in any game this season. The Pirates didn't do much better as they combined for only eight hits off five Golden Eagle pitchers. Stephen Castleman (5-2) went 5.2 innings, gave up four runs on five hits and took the loss. Pirate starter Kevin Rhodes lasted just one inning, but his successor, Glenn Tucker (4-2) threw the final eight, while giving up just three hits, and no runs.
In addition to King's home run, Shepherd had the only other extra base hit for the Eagles with his double. Mark Minicozzi homered for the winners, to go with a single, and teammate Darryl Lawhorn had a two-hit game, including his 12th double of the season.
After Castleman finished his 5.2 innings, Cliff Russum and Daniel Best threw a third of an inning each, Ray Antonelli went two-thirds of an inning and John Nicholas pitched the final inning.
Southern Miss has six regular-season games remaining. All six are Conference USA games, and the Eagles will host South Florida, May 9-11, and play three at Houston, May 15-17, to end the regular season. The C-USA Tournament is scheduled for May 21-25 at Tulane's Turchin Stadium.
