East Carolina Eliminates Charlotte From C-USA Tournament
May 22, 2003 | Baseball
May 22, 2003
NEW ORLEANS - East Carolina erupted for six runs in the eighth inning to overcome a two-run deficit and record an 8-5 win over Charlotte at the Conference USA Tournament at Tulane's Turchin Stadium on Thursday.
East Carolina improves to 32-24-1 with the win and will face either Southern Miss or Houston on Friday. Charlotte was eliminated, ending its season with a 21-28 overall record.
With Charlotte leading 4-2 in the eighth, East Carolina loaded the bases to start the inning. Mark Minnicozzi drew a one-out walk to pull the Pirates to within one before Darryl Lawhorn scored to tie the game on Kevin O'Sullivan's single. Ben Sanderson dropped a sacrifice bunt which scored John Poppert to give East Carolina the lead and Jamie Paige followed with a two-run single to push the ECU advantage to 7-4. Paige then scored from first on Ryan Jones' double to give the Pirates an 8-4 lead.
The Pirates had taken a 2-0 lead after two innings. Paige started the game with a single in the first and later scored from second on a Lawhorn double. Minnicozzi singled in the second, advanced to second on a Sanderson single and scored on Paige's two-out base hit.
Charlotte got on the board with a run in the third and added a pair in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead. Brad Erwin roped a single to left field in the fourth and scored a batter later on Thomas Bowker's double to center field. The 49ers added a fourth run in the seventh when Brad Lamm scored from second on a Brian Scafe single. After East Carolina took the 8-4 lead, George Sandel hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to pull the 49ers to within 8-5, but ECU reliever Neal Sears held any potential rally in check to keep the Pirates alive.
Sears picked up the win for East Carolina, improving to 6-5 on the season. Charlotte reliever Eric Walker took the loss for the 49ers, dropping to 0-5. Paige led East Carolina at the plate, going 3-for-5 with three RBI and a pair of runs scored.
East Carolina 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 - 8 12 2Charlotte 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 - 5 10 0
