University of North Carolina Athletics
Western Carolina 9, East Carolina 5
June 3, 2007 | Baseball
June 3, 2007
By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) _ John Ingram finished a double shy of the cycle, with his two-run homer in the third putting Western Carolina ahead to stay in a 9-5 victory over East Carolina in an elimination game at the Chapel Hill Regional on Sunday night.
Western Carolina (42-19) snapped a 13-game losing streak against the Pirates, beating them for the first time in 30 years and avenging a loss in the first game of the regional.
The Catamounts advance to face North Carolina on Monday and need two wins over the top-seeded Tar Heels _ the only team without a loss in the double-elimination regional _ to advance to the super regionals as a No. 3 seed.
Ingram's towering two-run drive off starter Josh Dowdy, his 15th of the season and second of the weekend, broke a 4-4 tie, and for much of the game the ball remained stuck high in the netting behind the fence in left field.
Ingram also singled in the second, tripled home a run in the fifth and finished with three RBIs.
Kenny Smith also homered, and No. 9 hitter Brent Greer drove in three runs for Western Carolina (42-19).
Brock Thornburg (4-2) relieved starter Corey Martin in the second and allowed two runs on five hits in 5 1-3 innings. Freshman Chris Masters worked 2 1-3 innings, striking out four, for the first save of his career.
Dowdy (5-2) allowed seven runs in five innings for the Pirates.
Stephen Batts homered, doubled and extended his school-record hitting streak to 29 games for second-seeded East Carolina (40-23), which lost two straight after beating the Catamounts 9-8 in Game 1 of the regional.
This time, the Catamounts rallied from an early three-run deficit by scoring four runs in the second.
Smith led off the inning with his second homer of the weekend and 20th of the season, matching a school record with 84 RBIs.
Five batters later, Greer's three-run double highlighted the Catamounts' four-run inning that put Western Carolina ahead 4-3. The Pirates forced their final tie when Jamie Ray's RBI single in the third made it 4-4.
Batts extended his record hitting streak in style _ his two-run homer in the first gave the Pirates a short-lived lead. His drive to deep left-center off Martin scored Harrison Eldridge to put the Pirates up 2-0 three hitters into the game. The Pirates made it 3-0 on Corey Kemp's run-scoring double in the second.
The game was delayed six hours because of persistent rain showers.
