By Staff
ECU Sports Information
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The No. 30 East Carolina Pirates fell 7-5 to Memphis in Saturday’s final game of the regular season.
K.K. Chalmers and Trey Wiedman each had two hits for the Tigers (17-38, 5-18) to lead the offense. Wiedman hit a two-run homer and finished with three RBIs.
Neil Schenk (2-2) picked up the win. He shut down the Pirates (39-17, 13-11) by allowing just one hit in 4 1-3 innings out of the bullpen. Starter Philip Utley gave up five runs on eight hits in 4 2-3 innings.
Brad Mincey (3-2) suffered the loss for the Pirates in a relief role. He gave up three runs on four hits in one inning.
ECU starter T.J. Hose went three innings, allowing three runs on two hits while striking out four. Sthil Sowers, Brett Butts and Josh Ruhlman also saw time on the hill for the Pirates.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after consecutive hits by Jamie Ray, Drew Schieber and Kyle Roller.
Wiedman gave Memphis its first lead of the weekend in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run to left-center.
Chalmers scored on a wild pitch from Hose in the third inning to give Memphis a 3-1 advantage.
ECU scored two runs in the fourth to knot the game at three. Brandon Henderson smacked his ninth home run of the season and second of the series to left-center. Roller tied the game with an RBI double.
Back-to-back homers in the fifth by Stephen Batts and Corey Kemp gave ECU a 5-3 lead. It was the 15th home run for Kemp and the 10th for Batts.
Tyler Huelsing cut into the Pirates lead, 5-4, on a sac fly.
Memphis took a 6-5 lead in the sixth thanks to three hits. Chris Newsom and Eric Farrell laced back-to-back doubles before Daniel Kaufmann singled home Newsom. Chalmers drove in the second run of the frame with a sac fly.
Wiedman’s RBI single closed out the scoring.
The Pirates will head to New Orleans for the 2008 Entergy C-USA Baseball Championships. ECU, the No. 5 seed, will face No. 4 seed Houston in Wednesday’s opening game of the tournament. The teams will begin play at 10 a.m.
C-USA Tournament
New Orleans
Tulane University
Greer Field at Turchin Stadium
Wednesday’s Games
Game 1 — (5) East Carolina vs. (4) Houston, 10 a.m.
Game 2 — (8) UAB vs. (1) Rice, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3 — (7) UCF vs. (2) Southern Miss, 5 p.m.
Game 4 — (6) Marshall vs. (3) Tulane, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday’s Games
Game 5 — Loser Game One vs. Loser Game Two, 10 a.m.
Game 6 — Loser Game Three vs. Loser Game Four, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7 — Winner Game One vs. Winner Game Two, 5 p.m.
Game 8 — Winner Game Three vs. Winner Game Four, 8:30 p.m.
Friday’s Games
Game 9 — Teams TBD, 4 p.m.
Game 10 — Teams TBD, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Game 11 — Teams TBD, 10 a.m.
Game 12 — Teams TBD, 1:30 p.m.
Game 13 — Same teams as Game 11 (if necessary), 5 p.m.
Game 14 — Same teams as Game 13 (if necessary), 8:30 p.m.
Sunday’s Game
Game 15 — Championship Game, 2 p.m.
C-USA All Games
Rice 21-3 42-11
Southern Miss 15-9 38-19
Tulane 13-9-1 36-18-1
Houston 14-10 34-21
East Carolina 13-11 39-17
Marshall 10-13-1 26-28-1
UCF 8-16 31-24
UAB 6-17 23-32
Memphis 5-18 17-38
ECU softball wins first NCAA tourney game
ECU Sports Information
BATON ROUGE, La. — The East Carolina softball team defeated Mississippi Valley State, 4-2, for its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, coming Saturday afternoon in the Baton Rouge Regional at LSU's Tiger Park.
The Pirates (37-30), making just their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, then faced No. 9 LSU Saturday evening in another elimination game. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, cruising to a 9-1 victory in five innings. The loss eliminated the Pirates from the tournament, where they went 1-2.
In the first game, the Devilettes (28-28) jumped ahead in the top of the second. Megan Hays walked and Angelia Jones doubled. Pirate hurler Brooke Swann unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Hays to score, putting the Devilettes ahead 1-0.
ECU responded in the bottom half of the second. Back-to-back doubles by Vanessa Moreno and Angel Barrella tied the game before Cristen Aona belted a long ball off of the scoreboard to score Barrella, making the score 3-1 in the Pirates' favor.
After Christina Merrida recorded her second infield single of the contest in the bottom of the third, she advanced to second on a Stacey Andrews groundout. With Jessica Johnson at the plate, Merrida scored from second on a botched throw to first by MVSU pitcher Nikki Stouder to increase the East Carolina lead to 4-1.
Swann (25-20) allowed just three hits the rest of the way to close out the game. The junior, who allowed two earned runs, struck out four and walked four.
Merrida ended the contest 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored to boost the offense.
LSU jumped on ECU early in Saturday evening’s game. Shannon Stein had an RBI single, Quinlan Duhon brought in a run with a sac fly and Erika Sluss slapped a run-scoring single in the three-run first inning.
Killian Roessner hit a two-run double and Duhon an RBI single in the second to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead.
The Pirates got on the board in the top of the third. Erin St. Ledger led off with a double and she scored on a single by Merrida.
LSU responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half to go up 8-1. Ashley Applegate had an RBI single the Tigers scored another run on an ECU error.
Jessica Mouse hit a solo home run in the fourth to cap the scoring.
Suzanne Riggs (3-6) suffered the loss. She allowed six runs on five hits in 1 2-3 innings. Swann pitched the final 2 1-3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with a pair of strikeouts.
Dani Hofer (19-7), who gave up a run on three hits in three innings, earned the win.