Baseball Ends C-USA Tourney with Loss to ECU

Friday, May 27

Pearl, Miss (Trustmark Park)

7:30 PM

Southern Miss

East Carolina

Baseball Ends C-USA Tourney with Loss to ECU

5/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

May 27, 2011

Final Stats | Quotes | Game Highlights | Coach Berry Interview

PEARL, Miss. - Seth Maness limited Southern Miss to three hits in pitching a complete-game 3-0 shutout of Southern Miss in the final day of pool play here Friday night at Trustmark Park in the C-USA Baseball Championship.

The Golden Eagles (39-17), playing with a depleted squad, finished the tournament with a 1-2 mark. Senior Tyler Koelling, the 2011 Cellular South Ferris Trophy recipient for the best collegiate player in the state of Mississippi, did not play in the entire tournament because of a hamstring injury, and fellow senior Adam Doleac missed the game with a foot injury.

Maness (9-3) fanned nine and walked only one as his only inning of trouble came in the fourth as the Golden Eagles put runners on the corners with one out. The senior right-hander, though, got out of the jam as he got Isaac Rodriguez to hit into a double play to end the threat. The Golden Eagles were limited to season-low three hits.

USM starter Josh Thomason, who made his first since Feb. 27, pitched solidly and kept the Pirates at bay for four innings, before giving up a pair of runs in the fifth.

With one out, Mike Ussery singled and then scored on a double by Philip Clark. ECU (38-19) then plated its second run on a single by Corey Thompson.

Clark extended the lead in the seventh with a RBI single back up the middle to make the score 3-0.

Thomason (2-2) ended his day by allowing three runs on 10 hits and struck out three over seven innings to suffer the loss.

ECU added one more run in the eighth on a RBI double by Chase McDonald.

Justin Diliberto had two of the three Golden Eagle hits, including a double.

The Golden Eagles now will have to wait on its postseason plans beginning Sunday afternoon when they announce the 16 regional hosts on www.NCAA.com/CWS as well as the ESPN family of networks bottom line ticker beginning at 2:30 p.m., CT. The NCAA Selection Show will take place Monday, beginning at 11:30 a.m., on ESPN.