Tulane University
Southern Miss
Baseball Clinches Series Win with 17-9 Victory over Southern Miss
Apr 21, 2001 | Baseball
April 21, 2001
Tulane (34-8, 12-5 C-USA) Head Coach Rick Jones celebrated his 600th collegiate win of his career with a 17-9 victory over Southern Miss (20-23, 6-11 C-USA) on Saturday afternoon.
For the second consecutive Saturday the Tulane offense recorded seven home runs.
Once again Tulane broke out the bats and hit back-to-back home run by Andy Cannizaro and Jake Gautreau to give the Green Wave a 2-0 lead after the first inning of play.
Tulane put up four additional runs to take a 6-0 lead in the second. Steve Shirley drove in a pair of runs on a single, while Jon Kaplan and James Jurries each sent in one run. Jurries was 4-for-6 on the day. He recorded two home runs, five RBI and scored three runs.
A leadoff walk given up by Tulane starter Barth Melius sparked a small Southern Miss rally in the bottom of the second. With runners on first and second Ben Mosley rocketed a home run into left cutting the Wave's lead, 6-3.
In the bottom of the third, Melius gave up his second home run of the day, a lead off shot into left by Dusty Haley, bringing the USM's run total to four.
Tulane took back a six run lead in the fourth. Jurries and Michael Aubrey singled and scored on a home run by Matt Groff. Groff had a strong afternoon, he was 2-for-3 with three RBI, three runs scored and two walks.
The Wave added a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh. Home runs by Shirley, Jake Gautreau and Jurries contributed three of the four runs. For the third time on five games, Gautreau has gone yard. He has recorded seven home runs in the last five games. Shirley was 2-for-4 with the RBI.
USM's Michael Artman smashed a three-run home run with one out in the eighth inning. The rally was snuffed by Green Wave reliever Steven Blades who recorded the final two outs of the inning. Blades went 1 2/3 gave up one hit and struck out three.
Melius (7-1) got the win, his seventh of the season. He went 7 1/3 innings gave up nine runs on 11 hits. Melius struck out a pair.
The losing pitcher was Charlie Rogers (2-3). He gave up six runs on five hits through 1 2/3 innings of work.
Tulane looks to sweep Southern Miss on Sunday, April 22 at 1:00 p.m.
