SoCon Tournament Game 14: Georgia Southern 3, Furman 0
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Georgia Southern's David Ray and Brett Lewis combined to hold Furman to one hit in leading the Eagles to a 3-0 win in Game 14 of the 2000 Wendys/Pepsi-Cola Southern Conference Tournament Saturday afternoon at Riley Park. The win gives Georgia Southern the Southern Conferences automatic bid to the NCAA Baseball Regionals.
Ray, the Southern Conference's Pitcher of the Year, had missed Georgia Southerns first three games of the tournament after contracting pneumonia earlier in the week. He held the Paladins hitless through five innings before tiring.
Ray walked two and struck out five and handed a 2-0 lead to Lewis to start the sixth. Lewis gave up a hit to Furman shortstop Danny Rueckel who led off the seventh with a single to right.
No Furman hitter reached third base in the game. Georgia Southern (38-21) scored off Furman starter Mike Feldhaus in the bottom of the first when J.R. Revere drew a lead-off walk, moved to third on a single by tournament MVP Matt Easterday and scored on a double by Dustin Langley.
Langley's double, his 25th of the season, tied the SoCon record for doubles in a season. The Eagles added a run in the fourth when Langley reached on an error to open the inning.
After a sacrifice bunt moved him to second, he went to third on a wild pitch by Feldhaus and scored on a bloop single by Matt Herring. Georgia Southern tallied its final run in the seventh when Easterday singled and came all the way around to score when Scott Henley's single to left went under the glove of James Bright and rolled to the wall. Ray earned the win to raise his record to a league-leading 12-2. Lewis picked up the save, his first of the season.
Feldhaus took the loss for Furman to fall to 0-1. The Paladins finished their season at 27-31-1.
The game marked the first time in SoCon Tournament history that the winner won by a shutout. It was also the lowest scoring championship game in history as no previous champion had failed to score at least four runs.
The tournament set an attendance record of 26,300 that surpassed last year's record total of 26,187.