June 18, 2008

The 2008 Marshall University baseball season will be remembered for many reasons. A school-record 30 wins. An exhausting schedule that did not see the Thundering Herd play a single game in its home city. An attack on the record book that saw several offensive and pitching school marks fall. A conference tournament berth for just the third time in the last 14 years.

And about that conference tournament appearance in New Orleans...

"Marshall outplayed us in every phase of the game. They out-pitched us, they out-hit us, they out-defensed us and they really did a great job running the bases. (Steve) Blevins threw another complete game against us. That's two times he's thrown a complete game against us. Both times we've had him where some guys would be on the ropes, and he would fight back and get the big outs like he did in the ninth inning, and you've got to tip your hat to that. I thought Marshall played better in every phase."
- Tulane head coach Rick Jones

"They just out-played us, out-pitched us, out-hit us. They played harder than we did. Our team knows how good Marshall is. I like their club. I think they played eight home games all year. Everything else was neutral site or road. They've got a very good baseball team offensively."
- Southern Miss head coach Corky Palmer

Coach Palmer was almost right. Every game Marshall played in 2008 was in a neutral site or on the road...there were no home games. Sixty-one games in 2008. None of which came on a field on or near its Huntington, W.Va.-based campus. So the Herd, more comfortable than any team in the country in living out of a suitcase, descended upon the Crescent City in late May for the Conference USA Baseball Championship after a grueling regular season.

As the No. 6 seed and with nothing to lose, the Herd's thunder cracked on the diamond louder than it had in 30 years.

Marshall arrived at Tulane's Greer Field at Turchin Stadium having lost its last five C-USA tilts, including a three-game sweep in the final regular-season series at Houston from May 15-17. Rather than return to Huntington following the sweep at Cougar Field, the Herd traveled directly to New Orleans to wait and prepare for the league tournament; a season-ending road trip nearly two weeks in length.

The Herd had known since its second loss at UH that it had clinched the sixth seed and a date with tournament host Tulane in day one of the championship. It had been well documented that the Green Wave and Thundering Herd shared a turbulent, at best, relationship stemming from its early April series in New Orleans. A Marshall coach and two players were ejected from game one of the series, a contest that ended with a chaotic melee at home plate after a Tulane walk-off hit. The Herd claimed game two the next day before the frenetic series ended with a tie on Sunday; not exactly the type of closure either team wanted after three days of heated baseball.

Marshall's return to Tulane gave the Herd not only its second C-USA tournament berth in its three seasons since joining the league, but an opportunity to further fuel what has become MU baseball's biggest rivalry. After a practice at the University of New Orleans and a tune-up on tournament's eve at Turchin Stadium, the Herd was poised for a big showing in the Big Easy.

Adam Yeager, as he has done in countless games from the leadoff spot, set the tone not only for Marshall's first game with his initial at bat, but for the Herd's entire tournament. The shortstop drew a four-pitch walk against C-USA Pitcher of the Year Shooter Hunt to open the contest. After a groundout, Yeager stole third base and in the process forced a Tulane error that allowed the junior to trot home for a quick 1-0 Herd advantage.

A similar scenario played out in the third inning when Yeager again walked on four pitches to open the frame. A steal of second plus a Nate Lape base hit gave the Herd a 2-0 lead. Marshall later got home runs from Brandon Casamassima, Lape and Jeff Rowley to give the Herd a convincing 10-5 win over Hunt and the No. 3 Wave.

Herd ace Steve Blevins tossed his third complete game of the season and tallied his school record-tying ninth win of the season in the opening game. He struck out eight Wave hitters and out-dueled the league's pitcher of the year in front of a hostile crowd and several MLB scouts.

Yeager swiped a tournament single-game record five steals against Tulane, and nearly a sixth with his attempted steal of home, which also gave him the most steals in Marshall single-season history. He went 2-for-3 with four runs scored and two RBI while Lape's two-run blast was part of his 2-for-4, three-RBI tournament debut.

The sixth-seeded Herd's victory over Tulane was just one of two upset victories at Turchin Stadium that day as the No. 8 Blazers of UAB dealt top-seeded, and No. 5 nationally-ranked, Rice an 8-2 loss earlier in the morning.

MU's victory over Tulane set up a tilt with No. 2 Southern Miss the next day, but heavy rains forced the postponement of nearly all of day two. The day off may have been a blessing in disguise for the Herd as Casamassima got an extra day to tend to an ailing knee that he tweaked while rounding second base against Tulane. He was forced from the game and his status was uncertain for the remainder of the tournament, but the extra treatment allowed the third baseman to return with no missed playing time.

The Golden Eagles, who won the regular-season series versus MU in Charleston, never trailed Marshall and held on for a 5-3 victory in a fantastic game that many covering the tournament called the best of the week. In an exciting, well-pitched and overall well-played game, USM closer Tyler Conn, arguably the nation's best, was tagged for an earned run in the ninth (just the fourth he allowed all season) and dodged a two-out, walk-off home run bid by Victor Gomez whose game-ending attempt fell just short of the left field wall.

Herd sophomore Dan Straily tossed 7 2/3 innings, surrendering just six hits and four runs against Southern Miss. Freshman right fielder Ben Jurevicius hit a solo home run, just his second of the season, and the injury-plagued Kurt Lipton notched a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning to give the Herd even more optimism heading into its first elimination game the next morning...against who else but Tulane?

Also, the combined 16.2 innings by starters Blevins and Straily to begin the tournament kept the Herd bullpen rested, a fact that would pay dividends later in the tournament.

If the Herd-Eagles game was the best played of the tournament, than the second installment of Marshall-Tulane could be called one of the most heart stopping. Momentum swung wildly from one team to the other in Saturday's 9 a.m. contest as Marshall answered a four-run Wave fifth inning with four runs in its half of the frame to lead 6-4 through five.

Tulane grabbed the lead, 7-6, thanks to a two-run single in the top of the eighth off of freshman reliever Arik Sikula. Lape tied the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning and Sikula started a 1-6-3 double play in the top of the ninth to retire the Wave with a tie game heading into MU's final at bat.

Rowley promptly singled and advanced to third base on Lipton's second hit of the day. With one out, Casamassima, who had homered earlier in the game, struck out with the winning run 90 feet away. With Marshall's No. 9 hitter, Jurevicius, at the plate, Tulane fired a wild pitch to the back stop to allow Rowley to sprint home for a frantic walk-off win.

Lape posted his second three-RBI game in as many contests against Tulane, including his second home run of the tournament which came in the four-run fifth. Lipton got his first start of the tournament and went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI. The victory bounced the host Green Wave from the tournament and propelled the Herd into another elimination game later in the day against Southern Miss.

After the four-hour, seven-minute thriller against Tulane, the Herd returned to its Canal Street hotel, just five blocks from Bourbon Street, to rest before its second postseason pressure-cooker of the day.

Once a team reaches game four of a college baseball tournament, pitching starts to become a major issue. With the top three starters usually unavailable due to lack of rest, the bullpen is charged with the task of getting the next win. This scenario played out in Marshall's second game against Southern Miss when nine different hurlers took the mound for head coach Jeff Waggoner and pitching coach Tim Adkins.

The seldom-used Shane Farrell, a freshman who had pitched just one-third of an inning in C-USA play all season, got the start for the Herd. With Adkins having advised the pitching staff of his plans for every reliever to make an appearance, Farrell got Marshall off to a great start by allowing just two hits in two innings with no runs. Senior Adam Dobies entered next and was one of four pitchers, along with regular second baseman Kenny Socorro, to pitch just one-third of an inning. Left-hander Ryan Kiel was most effective, throwing three innings with one hit and three strikeouts.

In all the Herd pitchers allowed just six USM hits in a 6-3 victory. Sikula, who picked up the win in the day's earlier game versus Tulane, tallied his school-record eighth save of the season. A three-run homer by Lape in the third inning gave MU a 4-0 lead and all the runs it would need as its bullpen proved worthy against one of the best hitting teams in the league.

After staying alive on Saturday with a pair of wins the Herd would have to win one more game Sunday morning, a final duel with Southern Miss, in order to play for a championship Sunday afternoon. The winner of the rubber match with the Golden Eagles would knock out the loser and advance to the title game against Houston.
End Part I

Written by Brandon Parro