Bethune-Cookman eliminated from Div I Baseball Playoffs
June 3, 2006
OXFORD**, Miss.–With the Green Wave’s season on the line, seniors
Billy Mohl and Nathan Southard made sure the show would go on as the Tulane
University baseball team defeated Bethune-Cookman College, 12-7, Saturday afternoon
in an elimination game of the 2006 NCAA Oxford Regional at Ole Miss’ Swayze
Field.
Mohl struck out five in 8.0 strong innings, and Southard went 2-for-2 with
a double, two sacrifice flies and four RBI in the win. The Green Wave wasted
little time jumping on the Wildcats, scoring two in the first and four in the
second. Tulane led 7-3 after five innings, but hung a five-spot in the top
of the sixth and held off a late rally by Bethune-Cookman to post a win in
NCAA Regional play for the ninth consecutive season.
“It was a stay-alive day and we were able to do that,” Tulane
head coach Rick Jones said. “As I said to our guys, at the end of the
day, there’s only going to be 48, then 32, and we’re working hard
to be in there when it’s 16.
“We’re in that 48 now and the reason is because we had a good
day on the mound with Billy, we played well defensively and we swung the bats
better. We took advantage of things, and balls yesterday that might not have
found eyes did. We put some good swings on them, put the pressure on them and
we did what we had to do.”
With the win, Tulane improves to 42-20 on the year and will take on the loser
of tonight’s Ole Miss/South Alabama game on Sunday, June 4, at 1 p.m.
If the Green Wave win that contest, they will play again on Sunday at 5 p.m.
against the winner of the Rebels/Jaguars contest and give themselves an opportunity
to play for the Regional championship on Monday at 7 p.m. Bethune-Cookman,
meanwhile, concludes its season at 30-27.
Southard was part of a 13-hit Tulane attack as the Green Wave’s top
three hitters in the lineup combined to go 8-for-14 and the 5-6-7 hitters joined
forces to go 5-for-12. Senior left fielder Matt Riser and sophomore shortstop
Cat Everett tied for the team lead with three hits each. Southard led all players
with four RBI while Riser, McFadden and Emaus each drove in a pair.
The game, however, belonged to Mohl, who improved to 9-0 on the year with
the win. The senior from Sugar Land, Texas, allowed four runs on seven hits
and three walks. After giving up two runs in the third, he allowed just one
hit over the next four innings and pitched his way around three singles in
his final inning of work.
“I came in the game and knew we had to win an elimination game,” Mohl
said. “I’m also a senior and if we don’t win, it could be
my last time putting this jersey on so that motivated me more than anything.
Fortunately, the wind was pretty dead out there so I could leave a ball up
and not get hurt with it. My whole game plan was to try and let them get themselves
out and it worked to my advantage today.”
Everett and McFadden got things going early for the Green Wave with back-to-back,
one-out singles in the first, and following a walk to junior first baseman
Mark Hamilton to load the bases, Southard lifted a sacrifice fly to right to
give Tulane a 1-0 lead it would not relinquish.
Emaus capped a two-run first with an RBI-single through the right side of
the infield, and junior catcher Ty Wallace sparked a four-run second by getting
plunked by a BCC starter Dustin Blackwell offering with one away. Following
the hit batsman, Riser singled and Everett hit a shot down the first-base line
that BCC first baseman Rob Caruso could not handle, and that allowed Wallace
to score all the way from second.
McFadden followed with a two-run double to left center, and following a Hamilton
groundout which allowed McFadden to advance to third, Southard dropped a bunt
down the first-base line and beat Caruso to the bag to plate to make it a 6-0
ballgame.
Bethune-Cookman got on the board in the third as the Wildcats loaded the bases
on a single by centerfielder Jose Ortiz, a walk by shortstop Chris Henault
and a hit-by-pitch issued to right fielder Nabil Sagbini. Catcher Jorge Mico
followed with a two-run single to center, but Mohl retired the next two batters
to get out of the inning without any more damage done.
The two teams traded runs over the next two innings as Southard plated Everett
from first with an RBI-double in the fourth and BCC designated hitter Alejandro
Jimenez plated Mico from first with a double in the fifth.
From there, however, Tulane all but put the game away in the sixth when the
Green Wave loaded the bases, Southard lifted a sacrifice fly to center, Emaus
and junior designated hitter Tim Guidry posted RBI singles, and Riser smoked
a two-run single through the left side of the infield to make it a 12-3 ballgame.
The Wildcats got a run in the eighth on a one-out, RBI-single by Caruso, and
made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth when centerfielder Jose
Ortiz reached on a leadoff error, Henault walked and Sagbini hammered a three-run
homer to right center off of Tulane reliever Matt Goebel to cut the led to
five.
Goebel walked the next two batters he faced, but bounced back to get Caruso
to hit into a 3-6-1 double play and left fielder Colin Irvine to fly out to
left to spark the Tulane celebration.
“(Goebel) is a senior and was our Friday night guy as a freshman, but
he is just coming off surgery,” Jones said. “He probably would
have come out a batter before, but he bleeds green, and I don’t think
anyone on the team is more of a competitor. He was able to make a good pitch,
and he was so quick getting to first to turn the double play.”
The Wildcats used seven pitchers on the day, and Blackwell was saddled with
the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) on four hits and a walk though
an inning and a third. The Green Wave scored two runs on three hits and three
walks off the first man out of the bullpen, Francisco Rodriguez, and plated
five on three hits and a pair of walks against Francisco Gomez.
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