Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Tulane
Tulane Prevails in 11-Inning Thriller Over Herd Baseball
3/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 23, 2007
Tulane 8, Marshall 7 (11 inn.)
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Marshall lost its first one-run game of the season thanks to Seth Henry's RBI bunt single in the 11th inning that proved to be the game winner as Tulane posted an 8-7 win over the Thundering Herd in the Conference USA baseball opener on Friday at Appalachian Power Park.
Henry converted the Green Wave's third RBI bunt of the night to collect the game-winning run. The previous two occurrences came on sacrifice squeezes that scored a pair of runs.
Marshall (14-6, 0-1) nearly pulled off the upset of former nationally-ranked Tulane (17-7, 1-0) in its first league game of 2007. The Thundering Herd scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 7-7 before Tulane won the game in extra innings.
Henry went 3-for-4 on the night with two runs scored and two RBI. Left fielder Anthony Scelfo went 2-for-6 with a home run and two RBI. First baseman Tim Guidry was 2-for-4 with a solo home run.
Tulane reliever Daniel Latham (2-0) earned the win after throwing four innings of one-run baseball. Marshall closer Nick Wolle (1-1) pitched the final three innings, giving up one run on four hits.
Marshall countered Tulane ace Sean Morgan with senior right hander Jeremy Slone. Slone, facing the best hitting team in C-USA, opened the game with a 1-2-3 top of the first to quickly get to the Marshall half of the inning.
Morgan, the reigning C-USA Pitcher of the Week, walked the bases loaded to open the game. Brandon Casamassima's sacrifice to centerfield to scored the leadoff man Matt Helm for a 1-0 lead. Marshall added two more runs in the first, on a bases loaded groundout by Nick Damas and on a wild pitch that scored Brendan Murphy to lead 3-0.
Morgan walked five hitters in the bottom of the first, but gave up no base hits.
Tulane tied the game at 3-3 in the third inning after back-to-back one-out singles put Jared Dyer and Henry on first and third. Slone then induced a grounder to shortstop that could have gotten Marshall out of the inning with a double play, but the throw from second base went awry and allowed a run to score. With two outs, Scelfo blasted a two-run homer over the right field wall, his second of the season, to tie the game.
Tulane claimed its first lead of the game, 4-3, when Henry and Nate Simon produced back-to-back doubles to deep right field in the top of the fifth. The Green Wave extended the lead to 5-3 in the frame on a Cat Everett safety squeeze with Simon on third base. Everett's bunt rolled nicely toward first base to allow Simon to easily score.
Guidry led off the sixth inning with his third home run of the season to put Tulane up 6-3. Warren McFadden then laced the next Slone offering to right center for a single and later scored on Henry's first RBI bunt of the contest.
Marshall let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers in the sixth inning when it could not score any runners with the bases loaded and one out. The Herd rebounded, however, in the seventh. The Herd added a run on a RBI single up the middle to score Brit Vincent, who reached on a leadoff hit by pitch. The Herd had runners on first and second and threatened to cut its deficit even more, but Damas hit into a double play to end the frame with MU down 7-4.
Marshall tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, aided by a two RBI single by Vincent that scored Chris Peak and Nate Lape. Lape, a transfer from North Carolina, made his Marshall debut after sitting out the first 19 games of the season due to an arm injury. He went 1-for-3 in the game.
Vincent went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI to lead Marshall. Josh Valle also recorded a pair of hits (2-for-4), as did catcher Thad Ledford (2-for-5). Helm went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts from the leadoff spot.
The Herd and Green Wave will continue the three-game series on Saturday at 12 noon at Appalachian Power Park.
