BATON ROUGE — Matt Sutton’s RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning capped a two-run rally for UNC Wilmington as the Seahawks outlasted Tulane, 9-8, in an elimination game of the Baton Rouge regional on Saturday night at Alex Box Stadium.
UNCW (40-22), making its first ever appearance in the NCAA baseball tournament, will advance to the championship round to face LSU (42-19-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Tigers defeated Tulane 13-5 earlier Saturday to remain undefeated, and the Seahawks will need two wins to advance to the super regional.
Tulane (44-19) fell to 9-14 all-time in NCAA tournament games in Baton Rouge.
Nathan Southard reached base with a one-out single in the 10th, and then after moving to second on Tim Guidry’s sacrifice bunt, Brian Bormaster lined a solid single to center field to score the go-ahead run.
But the lead wouldn’t last, as Brad Denson led off with a double and then scored right away on a single by Grawey, Grawey’s fourth hit of the game. A sacrifice bunt by Matt Wright moved Grawey to second, and after an intentional walk to Jamie Hemingway, Sutton lined a shot past Tulane first baseman Michael Aubrey to score Grawey.
The Green Wave was down to its final out in the ninth inning when Brian Bogsuevic hit what looked to be a routine ground ball to Seahawk shortstop Aaron Smith. But the ball took a bad hop, and when it got into left field, Grawey kicked the ball, allowing Tony Giarratano, who led off the ninth with a single, to score from first and tie the game.
UNCW grabbed a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the eighth when Hemingway, a first team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection, lifted a bloop that glanced off of Tommy Manzella’s glove and past Tulane right fielder Bogusevic, allowing Grawey to come home all the way from first.
The game was tied at 2-2 heading into the fifth, when it appeared the Green Wave would pull away for good with a four-run frame.
The first run scored when Jonny Kaplan came home on a balk by UNCW pitcher Ronald Hill, and then another Seahawk miscue, a throwing error by catcher Neal Eichhorn that sent Aubrey home. Bogusevic then extended the Wave lead to 6-2 with a two-run home run to deep right-center field.
Hemingway cut the Seahawk deficit to 6-4 in the fifth with a two-run home run into the left-center field seats, and an error by Kaplan on a Matt Sutton base hit would result in another unearned run on Russ Simmerman’s RBI ground out.
A wild pitch on a third strike to leadoff batter Eichhorn in the sixth set up the tying run for UNCW, which came on Matt Wright’s sacrifice fly.
Tulane took the early lead at 1-0 on a two-out home run by Aubrey, but the Seahakws took the lead at 2-1 in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Matt Sutton and a two-out RBI double from Simmerman.
The Green Wave used a leadoff walk to Manzella and a base hit by Southard to eventually tie the game in the second on an RBI ground out by Bormaster, and the 2-2 would hold through the fourth.
Tulane (44-19) 110 040 001 1– 8 13 2
UNC Wilmington (40-22) 200 031 010 2– 9 20 2
Cory Hahn, Brandon Gomes (6) and Brian Bormaster: Ronald Hill, Blake Cross (6) and Neal Eichhorn, Pat Murphy (7).
WP–Cross, 4-4.
LP–Gomes, 2-1.
2B–Tulane: Michael Aubrey (20); UNCW: Matt Wright (17), Jason Schindler (10), Russ Simmmerman (7), Brad Denson (10).
HR–Tulane: Michael Aubrey (18), Brian Bogusevic (4); UNCW: Jamie Hemingway (11).
T–3:29.
A–7,376 (paid); 2,387 (actual).
2003 NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL
GAME 5: UNC-WILMINGTON vs. TULANE
May 31, 2003
HEAD COACH MARK SCALF
“Well we pitched plenty well enough to win and Ronald Hill gave us a good start even though he made some mistakes in the four-run inning with three walks and a home run. Blake Cross was outstanding coming out of the bullpen and for the second time today gave us a chance to get back in it. These players just never quit and they will battle until the last out because they have all year and you saw it again tonight.”
On the decision to not bunt in the last inning
“After that double we felt like that was our opportunity to win the game. We have a top of the lineup club and our best hitters are our hottest guys at this point and if Chip (Grawey) gets a base hit then we are in position to do exactly what we did and Matt is able to bunt him into scoring position and then we can work from there in trying to win the ball game as opposed to just trying to tie the game.”
OUTFIELDER MATT SUTTON
On his game winning hit
“(Tulane Pitcher Joey) Charron — I faced him last night and he threw me all fast balls so I was sitting on fastballs. I was looking for a pitch to drive and he laid it in there and I got my hands through it.”
OUTFIELDER CHIP GRAWEY
“Well they just battled hard. It was a long, tough game and it was nice to have the LSU fans behind us and we have to keep it going. Especially after a long day today and the heat this morning, we were pretty beat up we had the benefit of going home and taking a little shower and we knew that they were going to be tired and that if we just kept it up we would have a good chance of coming through.”
OUTFIELDER JAMIE HEMINGWAY
“Well first of all that is one of the best college baseball games I have ever been involved in and as soon as we came into the ball park we got a standing ovation from these fans here and it was a great game. We came out and battled and they came out and battled. It was back and forth and you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
TULANE HEAD COACH RICK JONES
“It was just a long tough day for us. This afternoon we had a great ballgame through six innings and then we just couldn’t get them out. They worked hard and to their credit, they were making good contact. I thought that J.L. Crowel was doing a good job for us. Just all of a sudden he tired a little bit and they took advantage of it and they pitched so well both in starting and relief role. It was a tough day for us, but you have to bounce back in the night game.”
“I always thought if you lose the second one that it is a little tougher then if you lost the first one. You come off a loss and have to turn right around and play and get charged up again. I thought we did a good job of that quite honestly. UNC-Wilmington played so well tonight. I don’t know how many hits they had and they weren’t little cheap ones either, but we could have rolled over and we didn’t.”
FIRST BASEMAN MICHAEL AUBREY
“It’s basically been a long season and it hurts to see it come to an end tonight. We battled throughout the day. We were right in the game, in the first game earlier today. It was hot and we were battling through it and our luck kind of fell out there late in the game and they scored a bunch of runs.”
“We figured we would come out and get hot for the second game and try to get something going because you never know what might happen. We felt like we were the better team at the time but they played great baseball. They played great baseball and they really hit the ball well. We were kind of defenseless. They had us on our heels. It was just a long day and we hate to see it come to an end.”