March 21, 2004
11TH INNING HOME RUNS LEAD GEORGIA
SOUTHERN
PAST FURMAN, 7-4, IN SUSPENDED GAME
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Logan Phillips homered to lead off the 11th inning and teammates Brandon Long and Grant Burruss followed with solo blasts to power Georgia Southern to a 7-4 Southern Conference win over Furman in the completion of Saturday’s suspended game.
With the game tied 4-4, Phillips deposited Paladin reliever Case Cassedy’s second pitch of the inning over the left field fence. One out later, Long homered to right, and with two outs Burruss completed the home run display with a blast to right to make it 7-4.
Georgia Southern reliever Everett Teaford retired the Paladins in the bottom of the inning to earn his first save and make a winner of John Carroll (2-3), who pitched 10 innings and recorded a career high 11 strikeouts while throwing 158 pitches. Carroll’s bid for a complete game ended when rain and lightning halted play Saturday evening with Furman taking the field in the top of the 11th inning. The Gainesville, Ga., product yielded four runs and six hits over the first four innings but rallied to shut down Furman on six hits over his final six innings of work.
A 12-7 winner of Furman in 11 innings on Friday, Georgia Southern (11-13, 6-2 SoCon) pounded out 15 hits in the contest. Burruss led the way with a 4-for-6 performance, including a double and home run. Long went 3-for-6 with two RBI, a home run, and three runs scored, and Dowling added three hits, including a double and a pair of RBI in six at bats.
Furman (6-12, 0-2 SoCon) got a solid performance from senior pitcher Kyle Funk, who surrendered 11 hits and four runs over 7 1/3 innings while striking out five and walking four, but the Paladins, who built a 4-0 lead after four innings and finished with 12 hits, failed to get a runner as far as third base the rest of the way against Carroll and Teaford. Cassedy (0-3) took the loss for Furman but also led the Paladins at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored.
Furman grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Dominic Franchini led off with the single, advanced to third on a Cassedy double down the right field line, and came home an A.J. Davidiuk ground out. After Nick Mershon worked a two-out walk, Cassedy took advantage of a run down between first and second by scoring from third base before Mershon was tagged out to end the inning.
The Paladins made it 3-0 in the third when Andrew Greene led off with a bunt single down the third base line and stole second. Greene then broke for third and came around to score on Craig Caudill’s ground out to second base.
Consecutive two out singles in the fourth inning by Cassedy, Davidiuk, and Mershon plated Cassedy and stretched the Furman advantage to 4-0.
Georgia Southern sliced the Furman lead in half with a pair of runs in the fifth off Paladin starter Kyle Funk. After Phillips singled with one out, James Payne flew out to left field before Long delivered an RBI double to left field to score Phillips. Dowling then followed with a single to center field to plate Long and make it 4-2.
The Eagles trimmed it to 4-3 in the seventh when Long singled with one out and came around to score on Dowling’s line drive double down the left field line.
Georgia Southern continued its comeback in the eighth inning when Flint Wipke smacked a double to right center. After a Mike Economos ground out advanced Wipke to third, the Eagles’ Travis Adkinson was hit by Paladin reliever Calvin Hurst, who then walked Phillips to load the bases with one out. A passed ball then allowed Wipke to score to tie the game at 4-4. Hurst rallied to get James Payne on a pop foul and a Long on a fly to center.