University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
East Carolina
Baseball wins Tenth Straight
5/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 8, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team picked up their tenth consecutive win on Saturday as Todd McInnis pitched them past East Carolina 8-2 at Pete Taylor Park.
The game matched up two of the top pitchers in Conference USA as McInnis outdueled East Carolina's Seth Maness, giving Maness his first loss in eight decisions and only his third C-USA loss in his career.
McInnis was outstanding for the Golden Eagles, throwing eight complete innings allowing only one earned run and striking out eight to pick up his fourth consecutive win.
"I think everything started on the mound today," head coach Scott Berry said. "To give up only one earned run and five hits against a very good hitting East Carolina team says a lot about Todd and his performance today."
In the last two years McInnis has faces East Carolina twice, winning both games while working 15.2 innings, allowing only one run on six hits while striking out 16.
Maness allowed three earned runs on 11 hits in 5.2 innings to take his third loss of the season.
The win was the tenth consecutive for the Golden Eagles, the longest stretch since they won 11 straight at the end of 2007 regular season. Over the streak Southern Miss has only trailed in six of the 90 innings.
Offensively both Travis Graves and Tyler Koelling drove in a pair of runs and each had three hits to lead the attack.
The Golden Eagles jumped out early 2-0 with some help form the Pirate defense in the bottom of the first inning Kameron Brunty led off the frame with a single and B.A. Vollmuth doubled into right-center gap. ECU appeared to be out of the inning on a routine ground ball to third base but Corey Thompson's throw was in the dirt allowing Ellis to reach first and both Brunty and Vollmuth to score.
"I am proud of the way we have came out of the gate and scored early as of late," Berry added. "We are having a lot of good at bats early and it is not taking us midway through the game to score." Southern Miss added to their lead with another run in the bottom of the second inning. Graves started the rally with a double off the top of the wall before Tyler Koelling singled and stole second. Brunty knocked in the third run of the game for the Eagles with a groundout to score Graves.
East Carolina struck for their only runs in the top of the fifth inning as Zach Wright reached on a error and Jared Avchen hit a two-run home run to pull the Pirates within a run at 3-2.
Southern Miss answered right back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth as Doleac doubled and Mark Ellis attempted to sacrifice him over to third but a bad throw put runners on the corners with no one out. Day delivered a RBI single before Archer sacrificed the runners over and Graves reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Tyler Koelling deliver the big hit of the inning as he stuck hit bat out and hit a soft line drive over the second baseman's head to score two more runs.
The black and gold padded their lead in the bottom of the seventh as Mark Ellis reached on an infield single and Dillon Day ripped a solid single to centerfield. Archer added his second sacrifice bunt of the game to move both runners into scoring position. The Pirates went to the pen and reliever Shawn Armstrong nearly got his head taken off on Travis Graves' two-RBI single back up the middle.
Southern Miss will try for their third consecutive series sweep tomorrow, first pitch is set for 11:00 a.m.
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