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Baylor Slips Past Murray State in NCAA First Round, 7-6
May 30, 2003 HATTIESBURG, Miss. - An error by Murray State catcher Charlie Ward allowed Kevin Sevigny to score all the way from first with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth as 14th-ranked Baylor slipped past the No. 4 seed Thoroughbreds in the first round of the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional Friday night, 7-6. The win sends top-seed Baylor (42-21) into the winners' bracket, where the Bears will face No. 3 seed Southern at 3 p.m. Saturday. Murray State (25-30) will face host Southern Miss Saturday at 11 a.m. in an elimination game after the Jaguars beat the Eagles 5-3 early Friday. After Sevigny walked to lead off the bottom of the eighth, Chris Durbin was called upon to sacrifice bunt the go-ahead run over to second. Durbin took strike one, then put down a good bunt right in front of the plate. Ward's throw sailed over first baseman Brett McCutchan's head down the right-field line, allowing Sevigny to score and Durbin to reach second. The run completed a three-run comeback for the Bears, who had seen a 4-0 lead turn into a 6-4 defecit through six and a half innings. Trey Webb drove in Baylor's first run with a sacrifice fly in the second, and Mark Saccomanno's two-run triple completed a three-run third inning as the Bears went up 4-0.
Murray State got two runs back in the fifth. A pair of singles, a wild pitch and an error by Kyle Reynolds let the T-breds cut the lead in half. Fielding problems would haunt the Bears even further in the seventh, when a two-out error by Webb led to four runs and a 6-4 lead for Murray State. An error by Saccomanno in the inning compounded the problems as the Thoroughbreds batted around against Baylor starter Sean Walker and reliever Zane Carlson (3-4).
The Bears rebounded in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. David Murphy led off with a single, and Josh Ford followed with a walk. Michael Griffin sacrificed the two runners over, and Saccomanno drove in Baylor's fifth run with a groundout. After pinchhitter Reid Brees walked, Webb accounted for his error with an RBI single to left, tying the game at 6-6. Ward's error in the eighth made a winner out of Carlson, who settled down after squandering the lead in the seventh. Carlson struck out the side in the eighth and stranded two runners in the ninth. The junior reliever struck out five in 2.1 innings, allowing two hits, a walk and one unearned run. Though Walker allowed five runs, only one was earned. The sophomore struck out four, scattered eight hits and did not walk anyone. MSU starter Kyle Perry held the Bears off balance for six innings before tiring. Reliever Gordon Dugan (2-5) took the loss after allowing the Bears' unearned run in the eighth. NOTES: Saccomanno extended his career-best hitting streak to 17 games... Baylor improved to 10-10 in NCAA Tournament play under head coach Steve Smith. |
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