Tourangeau's One-Hitter Leads ECU Over Houston
May 23, 2003 | Baseball
May 23, 2003
NEW ORLEANS - East Carolina pitcher Jason Tourangeau threw the first one-hit shutout in the history of the Conference USA Tournament as the Pirates posted a 5-0 win over Houston at Tulane's Turchin Stadium on Friday.
East Carolina improves to 33-24-1 with the win and will face Southern Miss at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Houston drops to 32-27 with the loss and was eliminated from the C-USA Tournament.
Tourangeau (2-1), who was making just his second start of the year and entered the game with just 14 2/3 innings on the mound, allowed just five base runners and never faced more than four batters in any inning in the complete game outing. He gave up four walks and had one strikeout but was assisted by a stingy Pirate defense that did not commit an error.
East Carolina got all the runs it would need in the bottom of the second inning. Jake Smith drew a one-out walk and came home on Adam Witter's towering home run to right field that gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead. ECU added another two runs in the sixth. Ryan Norwood and Darryl Lawhorn started the inning with back-to-back singles before Smith loaded the bases when he reached on an error by Houston pitcher Garret Mock. Witter had a single to plate Norwood and Mark Minicozzi drove in Lawhorn to give ECU a 4-0 lead.
The Pirates added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. Smith started the inning with a double before being replaced by pinch-runner Brian Cavanaugh, who reached third on a Minicozzi sacrifice bunt and then scored on a wild pitch.
Houston's only legitimate scoring chance came in the top of the third. Catcher Nick Bott drew a one-out walk and then reached second on a ground out from Michael Bourn. But Tourangeau got Travis Tully to ground out back to the mound to end the inning. The Cougars lone hit came in the fifth, when Stuart Musslewhite recorded a two-out single. But the Bott grounded out to third one batter later.
Witter led East Carolina at the plate, finishing 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run scored, including a long home run to right field. Smith was 2-for-2 with a run scored, while Minicozzi added an RBI. Mock took the loss for Houston, falling to 5-4. He allowed six hits and four runs, all of them earned.
Houston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 1 2East Carolina 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 x - 5 8 0
