May 26, 2005

Final Stats

Charleston, S.C. - Dustin Evans, who got into a little trouble early, used two key defensive plays by Brent Stephens then cruised to pitch a complete game, leading second seed Georgia Southern to a 7-2 victory over third seed Western Carolina Thursday night in the second round of the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.

Evans (9-5) gave up two runs to the Catamounts in the third and was in trouble with two on and two out in the fourth. However, Eagle right fielder Brent Stephens caught a Blake Murphy line drive to save two runs. From that point, retired nine of his next 11 batters and ended with nine strikeouts with just three walks to pick up the win.

Western got on the board first, scoring two runs in the bottom of the third. On the first two pitches in the home half, Jonathan Greene doubled and Blake Murphy singled to put runners on the corners. Murphy would advance to second on a wild pitch, setting up Tim Hallam's RBI ground out. Jared Greenwood then plated Murphy with an RBI single to right field. Steven Strausbaugh tried to extend the lead, but a good play by Stephens in right proved to cap the WCU scoring for the evening.

Georgia Southern answered back with four runs to take a 4-2 lead in the top of the fourth. After two infield hits, Greg Dowling executed a hit-and-run, driving in Logan Phillips and putting runners on first and third with no outs. Flint Wipke tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center. Brett Pelfrey followed with an RBI double to left and Stephens had an RBI single to center, chasing WCU starter Brian Barnes. Luke Miller came out of the Catamount bullpen to induce a pair of ground ball outs and limit the damage.

The Eagles kept the momentum by scoring two runs in the fifth. James Payne had a leadoff single and scored one batter later on an RBI triple by Phillips. Dowling would drive in his second run of the game with an RBI ground out.

In the sixth, Pelfrey had a leadoff double, moved to third on a ground out and scored on David Richardson's single up the middle to give Georgia Southern a five-run (7-2) cushion.

Barnes (4-3) was the hard-luck loser, allowing seven hits and four runs over 3.1 innings. Miller would allow four hits and three runs over 2.2 innings, while Bryan Tupper only allowed two hits with three strikeouts over the final three innings to close out the game. Chris Davis, Greene and Murphy each had three hits for the Catamounts.

Offensively for the Eagles, Phillips and Pelfrey each had two hits, while Stephens and Payne contributed two hits a piece.

Western Carolina will face top seed and 20th-ranked College of Charleston Friday in the loser's bracket at 1:00 pm.