Looking Back at Herd Baseball's March to the C-USA Championship
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Marshall Baseball Looking Back at Herd Baseball’s March to the C-USA Championship Game By Brandon Parro The 2008 Marshall University baseball season The Herd had known since its second loss at will be remembered for many reasons. A UH that it had clinched the sixth seed and a The sixth-seeded Herd’s victory over Tulane school-record 30 wins. An exhausting schedule date with tournament host Tulane in day one was just one of two upset victories at Turchin that did not see the Thundering Herd play of the championship. It had been well docu- Stadium that day as the No. 8 Blazers of UAB a single game in its home city. An attack on mented that the Green Wave and Thundering dealt top-seeded, and No. 5 nationally-ranked, the record book that saw several offensive Herd shared a turbulent, at best, relationship Rice an 8-2 loss earlier in the morning. and pitching school marks fall. A conference stemming from its early April series in New tournament berth for just the third time in Orleans. A Marshall coach and two players MU’s victory over Tulane set up a tilt with No. 2008 Recap the last 14 years. were ejected from game one of the series, a 2 Southern Miss the next day, but heavy rains contest that ended with a chaotic melee at forced the postponement of nearly all of day And about that conference tournament ap- home plate after a Tulane walk-off hit. The two. The day off may have been a blessing in pearance in New Orleans... Herd claimed game two the next day before disguise for the Herd as Casamassima got an the frenetic series ended with a tie on Sunday; extra day to tend to an ailing knee that he “Marshall outplayed us in every phase of the not exactly the type of closure either team tweaked while rounding second base against game. They out-pitched us, they out-hit us, wanted after three days of heated baseball. Tulane. He was forced from the game and his they out-defensed us and they really did a status was uncertain for the remainder of the great job running the bases. (Steve) Blevins Marshall’s return to Tulane gave the Herd not tournament, but the extra treatment allowed threw another complete game against us. only its second C-USA tournament berth the third baseman to return with no missed That’s two times he’s thrown a complete game in its three seasons since joining the league, playing time. against us. Both times we’ve had him where but an opportunity to further fuel what has some guys would be on the ropes, and he become MU baseball’s biggest rivalry. After The Golden Eagles, who won the regular- would fi ght back and get the big outs like he a practice at the University of New Orleans season series versus MU in Charleston, never did in the ninth inning, and you’ve got to tip and a tune-up on tournament’s eve at Turchin trailed Marshall and held on for a 5-3 victory your hat to that. I thought Marshall played bet- Stadium, the Herd was poised for a big show- in a fantastic game that many covering the ter in every phase.” ing in the Big Easy. tournament called the best of the week. In an - Tulane head coach Rick Jones exciting, well-pitched and overall well-played Adam Yeager, as he has done in countless game, USM closer Tyler Conn, arguably the na- “They just out-played us, out-pitched us, out- games from the leadoff spot, set the tone not tion’s best, was tagged for an earned run in the hit us. They played harder than we did. Our only for Marshall’s fi rst game with his initial ninth (just the fourth he allowed all season) team knows how good Marshall is. I like their at bat, but for the Herd’s entire tournament. and dodged a two-out, walk-off home run bid club. I think they played eight home games The shortstop drew a four-pitch walk against by Victor Gomez whose game-ending attempt all year. Everything else was neutral site or C-USA Pitcher of the Year Shooter Hunt to fell just short of the left fi eld wall. road. They’ve got a very good baseball team open the contest. After a groundout, Yeager offensively.” stole third base and in the process forced a Herd sophomore Dan Straily tossed 7 2/3 - Southern Miss head coach Corky Palmer Tulane error that allowed the junior to trot innings, surrendering just six hits and four runs home for a quick 1-0 Herd advantage. against Southern Miss. Freshman right fi elder Coach Palmer was almost right. Every game Ben Jurevicius hit a solo home run, just his sec- Marshall played in 2008 was in a neutral site A similar scenario played out in the third in- ond of the season, and the injury-plagued Kurt or on the road...there were no home games. ning when Yeager again walked on four pitches Lipton notched a pinch-hit single in the ninth Sixty-one games in 2008. None of which came to open the frame. A steal of second plus a inning to give the Herd even more optimism on a fi eld on or near its Huntington, W.Va.- Nate Lape base hit gave the Herd a 2-0 lead. heading into its fi rst elimination game the next based campus. So the Herd, more comfortable Marshall later got home runs from Brandon morning...against who else but Tulane? than any team in the country in living out of Casamassima, Lape and Jeff Rowley to give the a suitcase, descended upon the Crescent City Herd a convincing 10-5 win over Hunt and the Also, the combined 16.2 innings by starters in late May for the Conference USA Baseball No. 3 Wave. Blevins and Straily to begin the tournament Championship after a grueling regular season. kept the Herd bullpen rested, a fact that would Herd ace Steve Blevins tossed his third com- pay dividends later in the tournament. As the No. 6 seed and with nothing to lose, plete game of the season and tallied his school the Herd’s thunder cracked on the diamond record-tying ninth win of the season in the If the Herd-Eagles game was the best played of louder than it had in 30 years. opening game. He struck out eight Wave hit- the tournament, than the second installment ters and out-dueled the league’s pitcher of the of Marshall-Tulane could be called one of the Marshall arrived at Tulane’s Greer Field at year in front of a hostile crowd and several most heart stopping. Momentum swung wildly Turchin Stadium having lost its last fi ve C-USA MLB scouts. from one team to the other in Saturday’s 9 a.m. tilts, including a three-game sweep in the fi nal contest as Marshall answered a four-run Wave regular-season series at Houston from May Yeager swiped a tournament single-game fi fth inning with four runs in its half of the 15-17. Rather than return to Huntington fol- record fi ve steals against Tulane, and nearly a frame to lead 6-4 through fi ve. lowing the sweep at Cougar Field, the Herd sixth with his attempted steal of home, which traveled directly to New Orleans to wait and also gave him the most steals in Marshall Tulane grabbed the lead, 7-6, thanks to a two- prepare for the league tournament; a season- single-season history. He went 2-for-3 with run single in the top of the eighth off of fresh- ending road trip nearly two weeks in length. four runs scored and two RBI while Lape’s man reliever Arik Sikula. Lape tied the game two-run blast was part of his 2-for-4, three- with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the RBI tournament debut. inning and Sikula started a 1-6-3 double play in 56 2009 Thundering Herd Media Guide Marshall Baseball the top of the ninth to retire the Wave with a match with the Golden Eagles would knock The title game was tighter than most would tie game heading into MU’s fi nal at bat. out the loser and advance to the title game have anticipated since both teams’ pitching against Houston. staffs were wearing thin in their respective Rowley promptly singled and advanced to third sixth game of the tournament. Straily was again 2008 Recap base on Lipton’s second hit of the day. With Championship Sunday started like most New outstanding, pitching 5 2/3 innings with only one out, Casamassima, who had homered ear- Orleans mornings that week: humid, sticky four hits and two runs allowed. Both clubs lier in the game, struck out with the winning and hot. With so much on the line in a few ushered fi ve pitchers each to the mound in a run 90 feet away. With Marshall’s No. 9 hitter, hours across town, the Marshall players were game that was knotted at 2-2 after seven-and- Jurevicius, at the plate, Tulane fi red a wild pitch remarkably loose in the hotel lobby awaiting a-half innings. to the back stop to allow Rowley to sprint the bus’s arrival. Maybe 6:45 a.m. is too early home for a frantic walk-off win.