April 18, 2008

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NEW ORLEANS, La. - Junior right-hander Shooter Hunt struck out a season-high 12 batters and closer Mason Griffin fanned three in a pair of solid stanzas as the Tulane University baseball team defeated Conference USA rival Southern Miss, 4-3, Friday evening at the new Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

The Green Wave out-hit the Golden Eagles, 10-4, including a 3-for-3 showing by junior right fielder Drew Allain, but four Tulane errors kept Southern Miss in the ballgame. The right arms of Hunt and Mason, however, were able to overcome the defensive lapses to hold on to the victory. With the win, Tulane improves to 26-11-1 on the year and 5-4-1 in C-USA play. Southern Miss, meanwhile, falls to 25-12 overall and 5-5 in league action.

"The reason we won the ballgame tonight is because we pitched so well," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said, as the team's 15 strikeouts is a season high. "It was a sloppy ballgame and I don't think either club played nearly as well as they can. Certainly, we didn't.

"We were bad in the short game, we were bad defensively, we didn't run the bases very well, and we didn't have quality at-bats in RBI situations. I'm relieved that we won, but quite honestly, we're fortunate to have. With the exception of our pitching, I thought it was a sub-par performance for us."

While a steady rain fell in the New Orleans area, Hunt (6-1) was red hot as the All-America candidate posted at least one strikeout in six of the seven innings he tossed, including a pair of two-K stanzas while fanning the side in both the sixth and seventh innings.

The Green Wave errors, three of which came with Hunt on the mound, ran the pitch count up and Hunt was removed after giving up a leadoff double to Southern Miss second baseman James Ewing in the eighth. From there, Griffin allowed an RBI-single off the glove of a diving Sam Honeck at first, but got a fielder's choice and a strikeout to escape the inning without any further damage done.

Tulane held a 4-2 advantage heading into the ninth, and it appeared the Griffin had pitched his way around a leadoff double by Golden Eagles' left fielder Drew Carson with a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball to third off the bat of centerfielder Bo Davis. The throw to first was off line, though, and Davis stood at second base representing the tying run. Griffin won the battle as Ewing bounced to short, and reserve infielder Josh Prince's throw to first was scooped by Honeck to give the junior right-hander his sixth save of the year.

"The last few times out, the pitch count got run up," said Hunt, who did not get past the sixth inning in each of his last three starts. "It really seemed like they had a game plan to try and get me to do deep, so I was trying to go 0-1 every time and try to get ahead of them as much as possible so that I could put them away early.

"The fastball was going today. I was able to spot in on both sides of the plate. Even the balls that seemed to miss their spots, (Southern Miss) didn't react very well to them. I think they had a little extra juice on them. It was big for me to go out there tonight and do that."

Allain was one of three Tulane players to post a multiple-hit ballgame as freshman third baseman Rob Segedin went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, and Honeck posted a pair of singles in four trips to the plate.

The Green Wave offense had things going early on as junior centerfielder Aja Barto opened the home half of the first with a walk and junior second baseman Anthony Scelfo followed with a double to right to put a pair of runners in scoring position with nobody out. A wild pitch by Southern Miss starter Josh Billeaud allowed Barto to score from third, and Segedin came through with a two-out homer to right to give Tulane a 3-0 advantage.

The Wave padded their lead in the second when junior left fielder Warren McFadden scored on a sacrifice fly by junior shortstop Seth Henry. Tulane tallied six hits and three walks the rest of the way, but Billeaud and reliever Jonathan Johnston combined to keep the Green Wave off the scoreboard over the final six innings Tulane drew an at-bat to keep things close.

Hunt had a no-hitter going through four before Southern Miss right fielder Michael Ewing broke things up with a sinking line drive to right to open the fifth. Allain's diving attempt came up empty and while he lay motionless for several minutes after colliding with the wall, Ewing was able to chug all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

Trey Sutton's pinch-hit, RBI-single to first in the eighth cut the lead in half, and Carson scored on the error in the ninth to account for the final score.

Billeaud (2-3) was saddled with the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits and six walks while striking out one in a 5.1-inning start. Johnston walked one and gave up three singles over the final 2.2 scoreless frames.

Tulane and Southern Miss continue the series on Saturday at 6 p.m. before closing out the weekend on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE or log onto the internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.