Baseball Drops Middle Game of East Carolina Series
3/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 22, 2008
Houston-East Carolina Game Book (March 22, 2008) in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. - No. 23 East Carolina scored five runs in the first inning and added five more in the sixth and seventh frames on the way to a 15-4 win over the University of Houston baseball team in the middle game of a Conference USA series at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Pirates smashed three home runs in the first inning, including back-to-back shots from Brandon Henderson and Corey Kemp, to grab the lead for good.
The Cougars began chipping away at the deficit in the fourth inning when senior outfielder Jake Stewart led off the frame with a home run to right center.
One inning later, UH added another run. Senior outfielder Bryan Tully was hit by a pitch to lead off and moved all the way to third base following sophomore catcher Chris Wallace's single to right center. Sophomore center fielder Zak Presley then grounded out to second base, allowing Tully to score and trim the ECU lead to 5-2.
In the sixth inning, the Cougars staged a two-out rally to pull to within a run. Junior DH Felix Fanaselle singled to right field and swiped second to move into scoring position. Tully then laced a double down the left-field line to score Fanaselle and came around to score on Wallace's RBI-single to center field for a 5-4 ECU lead.
However, that would be as close as the Cougars would get the rest of the way. ECU recorded five runs in back-to-back frames to ice the win.
Wallace went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead the Cougars, who posted seven hits in the loss. Senior first baseman Bryan Pounds went 0-for-4 to see his career-best 19-game hitting streak - the sixth longest in school history - come to an end.
Kemp went 3-for-4 with three solo home runs to lead an ECU offensive attack, which pounded out 16 hits, including six home runs. All but one ECU starter recorded at least one hit in the game with six Pirates enjoying multi-hit games.
Henderson batted 3-for-5 with a run, home run and four RBIs. Harrison Eldridge went 2-for-5 with a run, while Kyle Roller finished the game 2-for-5 with two runs and a home run. Dustin Harrington batted 2-for-3 with a home run, three runs and an RBI, and Drew Schieber batted 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.
UH starter Ty Stuckey, making his third straight weekend start, collected the loss and fell to 1-2 after surrendering five runs off five hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
ECU starter Seth Maness improved to 4-0 after holding the Cougars to four runs off seven hits and two walks in 5.2 innings.
The series wraps up at 10 a.m. (CDT), Sunday with the rubber match. Fans can hear the game live on UHCougars.com with Jeremy Branham calling the play-by-play action and former UH letterwinner Pat Cauley providing analysis.
Fans also can follow live stats via the Internet by clicking the "Gametracker" link on the UH front page or on the Cougar Baseball schedule page.