2003 Schedule/Results
2003 Statistics
UNC-Wilmington 12, Northeastern 6
NCAA Regionals
May 31, 2003
Alex Box Stadium (Baton Rouge, LA)
  Chris Emanuele 2-3 with a three-run homer |
 Brendan Ryan throws a pitch in his final game as a Husky. |
Northeastern lost to UNC-Wilmington, 12-6, on the second day of the NCAA Championship in Baton Rouge, La. on Saturday. With the loss, the Huskies have been knocked out of the double-elimination tournament and finish their season with a 27-24 mark. The Seahawk bats came alive early as UNC-Wilmington scored three runs in both the second and third innings and never looked on their way to pounding out 17 hits.
Down 8-0, NU scored six runs in the sixth inning to make it a two-run game, but the Seahawks responded with four unanswered runs to put the game away.
The Husky offensive was stifled early on by UNC-Wilmington starter Jake Mullins, who didn't allow a hit until the top of the fifth when freshman Chris Emanuele led off the inning with an infield single.
Northeastern had a good chance to jump on the board in the top of the second inning as Jeff Heriot and Omar Pena both reached on walks, but Arman Sidhu hit into an inning-ending double play to end the threat. UNC-Wilmington took command in the bottom half of the inning with two outs to take a 3-0 lead. Neal Eichhorn singled up the middle and moved to third on a soft single by Brad Denson. Chip Grawey then hit a ball down the right field line that landed right on the chalk of the foul line. Grawey ended up at third with a standup triple that scored Eichhorn and Denson. Matt Wright brought Grawey home with a single to right before getting caught stealing to end the inning.
Jamie Hemingway led off the third with a single for the Seahawks. He then stole second and wound up at third after catcher Matt Morizio's throw ended up in centerfield. Matt Sutton brought Hemingway in with an RBI single to right. Jason Schindler followed with a single to left, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Russ Simmerman advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt and Aaron Smith knocked both Sutton and Schindler home with a single up the middle to make it 6-0.
A Grawey walk and a single by Wright chased NU starting pitcher Brendan Ryan in the top of the fourth. He was replaced by Jordan Thomson. Hemingway grounded into a fielder's choice, leaving runners on first and third. Sutton then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center, scoring Grawey and giving UNC-Wilmington a 7-0 lead.
The Huskies couldn't take advantage of another great opportunity in the top of the fifth when Emanuele led off the inning with NU's first hit of the game, an infield single. With two outs, Miguel Paquette hit a bloop-single just over the head of Smith at shortstop. Morizio walked to load the bases. Mike Steinberg then looked to put the Huskies right back in the game with a deep shot to rightfield, but it came up just short of the wall and was hauled in on the warning track.
UNC-Wilmington made it 8-0 in the bottom of the fifth as Eichhorn tripled off the wall in left-centerfield and came home on a single by Denson that was just out of reach of a diving Emanuele.
The Huskies got on the board in the sixth, finally cracking Mullins and mounting a comeback just as they did the previous day when they trailed LSU 10-1. Brad Czarnowski reached on a walk and moved to third as Tim Bush rapped a single up the middle. With one out, Emanuele once again ignited the Husky offense, blasting a three-run homer over the wall in left-centerfield. With two outs Sidhu earned a free pass and went to second on a single to left by Paquette. Morizio platted both runners with a lined double to the gap in right-center that sent Mullins to the showers. Steinberg kept the rally alive, hitting a single to right that scored Morizio and the Huskies again proved to be resilient as they cut the deficit to 8-6. A walk to Czarnowski ended the afternoon for Seahawk reliever Thomas Benton, who only pitched to two batters. UNC-Wilmington then brought in their closer, Blake Cross, who leads the team in saves with 12. Cross got Bush to pop up in foul territory and end the inning.
A pair of Seahawk home runs in the seventh and eighth gave UNC-Wilmington some breathing room. Sutton hit a solo blast off Thomson over the wall in centerfield in the seventh and Wright connected on a three-run shot in the eighth to make it 12-6 and wrap up the scoring.
Ryan took the loss on the mound for NU, falling to 4-4 on the year.
UNC-Wilmington fell to Tulane 8-3 on Friday night (after going into the the bottom half of the eighth tied at three), but now advances to play the loser of the LSU/Tulane contest Saturday night. The winner of the game will advance to Sunday's final round.
UNC-WILMINGTON POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Scalf
"Well I felt like offensively we came out and were able to move the baseball early in the baseball game and put some pressure on them. When you look at the line, I think we scored in six of the eight offensive innings so we were pretty pleased with that. Matt Wright, Jamie Hemingway, and Matt Sutton were all big contributors today. From a pitching standpoint, Jacob (Mullis) gave us five good innings and we knew he was getting up in his pitch count about where he usually runs out of gas and especially with it being a hot day today. We were hoping to get him through the sixth but we were not able to do that. Blake (Cross) came in and shut things down in the last three to give us an opportunity to continue to play."
Outfielder Matt Sutton
"Last night things were pretty rough for our offense and we came out here today and knew that this could be our last game. We came out and attacked early and swung at good pitches. We hit the ball hard, scored some runs early and got some runs behind Jake (Mullis) and gave him the ball for five good innings. Blake (Cross) then came in and held them down."
Pitcher Blake Cross
"I came in a little early for me because I am not used to throwing more than one or two innings. My last appearance was in the conference tournament and I threw five and that was the longest appearance that I have had all year. I felt confident that I had enough gas to get through until the end. I did not really have any of my good pitches today so luckily people just hit balls at our fielders. My job is to throw strikes and hope that they hit it at somebody and that is what I felt they did today."
NORTHEASTERN POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Neil McPhee
"We made a run at them in the middle of the game but we just emptied things out I guess. They're a good hitting team, they put the bat on the ball and made the most of their opportunities. We are such a young team and it was a great learning experience. We are losing only a couple of players off this team and hopefully we will be back here next year. It absolutely could not be a better place to host a regional. People down here are just extraordinarily hospitable to everybody. They make the players feel so at home and welcomed. It's just a great site and my congratulations to the LSU people."
Catcher Matt Morizio
"Overall the experience was excellent. I've never seen anything like this, tailgating for college baseball. The fact that they were inviting us over afterwards was amazing and the food was pretty good too. As far as hitting, I just swung the bat and felt pretty good. I hit it solid. I got one to land so I felt pretty good with the bat today."
Outfielder Chris Emanuele
"The regional was great experience. The fans are great behind us and after us at the same time. I guess I just hit the ball really good this week. I swung at good pitches and got some hits."
Northeastern 6 (27-24) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Mike Steinberg dh........ 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 .258 Brad Czarnowski lf....... 3 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 .261 Tim Bush 3b.............. 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 5 2 .353 Jeff Heriot cf........... 4 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 .252 Chris Emanuele rf........ 3 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 .335 Omar Pena 2b............. 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 4 0 .304 Arman Sidhu ss........... 3 1 0 0 1 2 2 1 2 .325 Migeul Paquette 1b....... 4 1 2 0 0 0 10 0 0 .230 Matt Morizio c........... 3 1 1 2 1 0 6 4 0 .233 Brendan Ryan p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Jordan Thomson p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 33 6 7 6 6 4 24 14 7 UNC Wilmington 12 (39-22) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Chip Grawey lf........... 3 3 1 2 2 0 6 0 0 .342 Matt Wright 1b........... 5 1 3 4 0 1 4 0 0 .321 Jamie Hemingway cf....... 5 1 3 0 0 0 7 0 0 .362 Matt Sutton rf........... 4 2 3 3 0 1 2 0 0 .310 Jason Schindler dh....... 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 .317 Russ Simmerman 2b........ 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 .254 Aaron Smith ss........... 4 0 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 .264 Neal Eichhorn c.......... 3 2 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 .328 Pat Murphy c............ 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .298 Brad Denson 3b........... 4 2 3 1 0 0 2 1 1 .336 Jake Mullis p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Thomas Benton p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Blake Cross p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 35 12 17 12 3 6 27 3 4 Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Northeastern........ 000 006 000 - 6 7 2 UNC Wilmington...... 033 110 13X - 12 17 0 ------------------------------------------- E - Heriot(4); Morizio(7). DP - Northeastern 1; UNCW 1. LOB - Northeastern 7; UNCW 4. 2B - Morizio(11); Denson(9). 3B - Grawey(1); Eichhorn(1). HR - Emanuele(5); Wright(9); Sutton(11). HBP - Emanuele. SH - Simmerman(4). SF - Sutton(1). SB - Heriot(15); Emanuele(13); Hemingway(31). CS - Wright(5); Hemingway 2(6); Denson(3). Northeastern IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Brendan Ryan........ 3.0 11 7 7 1 0 18 20 67 5.13 Jordan Thomson...... 5.0 6 5 5 2 6 17 20 83 5.06 UNC Wilmington IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Jake Mullis......... 5.2 6 6 6 5 3 22 27 95 3.81 Thomas Benton....... 0.0 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 10 3.50 Blake Cross......... 3.1 0 0 0 0 1 10 11 37 2.06 Win - Mullis (8-5). Loss - Ryan (4-4). Save - Cross (13). HBP - by Cross (Emanuele). Inherited runners/scored: Thomson 2/1; Benton 1/1; Cross 2/0. Pitches/strikes: Ryan 67/45; Thomson 83/50; Mullis 95/57; Benton 10/6; Cross 37/22. Umpires - HP: Danny Everett 1B: Joe Cacciatore 2B: Mike Conlin 3B: Ken McQueen Start: 11:07 Time: 3:15 Attendance: 1275 Game notes: Chuck Lyon replaced Everett as home plate umpire in the middle of the 8th inning. Ryan faced 2 batters in the 4th. Benton faced 2 batters in the 6th. Game: BR03
Play-by-Play
2003 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Northeastern vs UNC Wilmington - Play-by-Play
5/31/2003 at Baton Rouge (Alex Box Stadium)
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Northeastern........ 000 006 000 - 6 7 2
UNC Wilmington...... 033 110 13X - 12 17 0
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Northeastern starters: 19/dh Steinberg; 17/lf Czarnowski; 45/3b Bush; 44/cf Heriot;
7/rf Emanuele; 16/2b Pena; 3/ss Sidhu; 31/1b Paquette; 11/c Morizio; 27/p Ryan;
UNC Wilmington starters: 16/lf Grawey; 22/1b Wright; 1/cf Hemingway; 5/rf Sutton;
24/dh Schindler; 19/2b Simmerman; 11/ss Smith, A.; 18/c Eichhorn; 30/3b Denson; 12/p
Mullis;
Northeastern 1st - Steinberg flied out to rf (0-0). Czarnowski popped up to
lf (1-1). Bush struck out looking (0-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 1st - Grawey grounded out to ss (1-2). Wright grounded out to
2b (1-2). Hemingway singled to center field (0-1). Sutton singled to right field
(2-2); Hemingway advanced to second. Schindler grounded out to 3b (2-2). 0 runs,
2 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
Northeastern 2nd - Heriot walked (3-0). Emanuele flied out to lf (0-2).
Heriot stole second. Pena walked (3-2). Sidhu grounded into double play 2b to 1b
(0-0); Pena out on the play. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 2nd - Simmerman grounded out to 2b (2-1). Smith, A. grounded
out to 3b (1-0). Eichhorn singled up the middle (1-2). Denson singled to right field
(1-2); Eichhorn advanced to third. Grawey tripled to right field, 2 RBI (0-1);
Denson scored; Eichhorn scored. Wright singled to right field, RBI (0-1); Grawey
scored. Wright out at second c to 2b, caught stealing. 3 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors,
0 LOB.
Northeastern 3rd - Paquette flied out to cf (2-2). Morizio lined out to 2b
(0-2). Steinberg flied out to cf (1-1). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 3rd - Hemingway singled to center field (0-1). Hemingway stole
second, advanced to third on a throwing error by c. Sutton singled through the right
side, RBI (2-2); Hemingway scored. Schindler singled to left field (0-1); Sutton
advanced to second. Simmerman grounded out to 3b, SAC, bunt (0-0); Schindler
advanced to second; Sutton advanced to third. Smith, A. singled up the middle, 2
RBI, advanced to second on a fielding error by cf (0-0); Schindler scored; Sutton
scored. Eichhorn grounded out to 2b (0-2); Smith, A. advanced to third. Denson flied
out to cf (0-0). 3 runs, 4 hits, 2 errors, 1 LOB.
Northeastern 4th - Czarnowski struck out looking (2-2). Bush fouled out to 3b
(1-0). Heriot flied out to lf (2-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 4th - Grawey walked (3-0). Wright singled to right field
(2-0); Grawey advanced to second. Thomson to p for Ryan. Hemingway reached on a
fielder's choice (2-1); Wright out at second 2b to ss; Grawey advanced to third.
Sutton flied out to cf, SF, RBI (0-1); Hemingway advanced to second; Grawey scored.
Schindler walked (3-2). Hemingway out at third c to 3b, caught stealing. 1 run, 1
hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
Northeastern 5th - Emanuele singled to third base (0-0). Pena flied out to lf
(3-2). Sidhu struck out looking (1-2). Paquette singled to left field (1-0);
Emanuele advanced to second. Morizio walked (3-2); Paquette advanced to second;
Emanuele advanced to third. Steinberg flied out to rf (2-0). 0 runs, 2 hits, 0
errors, 3 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 5th - Simmerman struck out swinging (2-2). Smith, A. struck
out looking (1-2). Eichhorn tripled to left center (0-0). Denson singled to right
center, RBI (1-0); Eichhorn scored. Denson out at second c to 2b, caught stealing.
1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Northeastern 6th - Czarnowski walked (3-2). Bush singled up the middle (0-1);
Czarnowski advanced to third. Heriot fouled out to 3b (1-2). Emanuele homered to
left center, 3 RBI (0-0); Bush scored; Czarnowski scored. Pena flied out to cf
(0-0). Sidhu walked (3-1). Paquette singled to left field (0-0); Sidhu advanced to
second. Morizio doubled to right center, 2 RBI (1-0); Paquette scored; Sidhu scored.
Benton to p for Mullis. Steinberg singled to right center, RBI (0-2); Morizio
scored. Czarnowski walked (3-1); Steinberg advanced to second. Cross to p for
Benton. Bush fouled out to 1b (0-1). 6 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 6th - Grawey grounded out to 3b (0-0). Wright struck out
looking (2-2). Hemingway fouled out to 1b (0-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0
LOB.
Northeastern 7th - Heriot flied out to lf (0-1). Emanuele hit by pitch (0-0).
Emanuele stole second. Pena flied out to cf (3-1); Emanuele advanced to third. Sidhu
struck out looking (1-2). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 7th - Sutton homered to center field, RBI (1-1). Schindler
flied out to cf (1-1). Simmerman struck out looking (2-2). Smith, A. grounded out to
3b (0-0). 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Northeastern 8th - Murphy to c for Eichhorn. Paquette flied out to cf (3-2).
Morizio flied out to cf (0-1). Steinberg grounded out to 3b (2-2). 0 runs, 0
hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
UNC Wilmington 8th - Murphy struck out swinging (1-2). Denson doubled down
the lf line (2-2). Grawey walked (3-2). Wright homered to right field, 3 RBI (1-0);
Grawey scored; Denson scored. Hemingway singled to center field (3-2). Sutton struck
out swinging (1-2); Hemingway out on the play, out at second c to ss, caught
stealing. 3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Northeastern 9th - Czarnowski flied out to lf (2-0). Bush grounded out to ss
(1-1). Heriot flied out to cf (2-0). 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
