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May 23, 2002

Box Score

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Miami University (31-27) baseball team resisted elimination from the Mid-American Conference tournament this afternoon with a 14-13 victory over No. 2 seed Eastern Michigan (30-28) at BGSU's Warren Steller Field. The RedHawks and the Eagles combined for 11 home runs in the game while junior Michael Carlin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) broke several Miami and MAC tournament records with four round-trippers.

Senior pitcher Shawn Landis (Pleasant Hill, Ohio/Dayton), who was named to Second-Team All-MAC, opened the game for the Red and White by striking out the first four Eastern Michigan batters he faced. The Eagles rattled Landis, however, in the third inning when catcher Chad Jenkins crossed the plate after Luke Beeler hit an infield single to third base, and error allowed Jenkins to score from second.

Miami erased the 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the third frame when freshman Nolan McCue (Chicago, Ill./De La Salle) led off with a single up the middle. Junior David Cook (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales) brought McCue home with an RBI double to left-center field to tie the game 1-1. After junior Mike Galloway (St. Thomas, Ontario/Central Michigan) was plunked for the second time in as many at-bats Carlin belted a three-run home run over the left-field wall to give the Red and White a 4-1 lead.

The Eagles notched another run in the fourth inning, but in the bottom of the stanza Miami broke the game open with a seven-run inning. McCue reached on an error, freshman Brian Canada (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) walked, and Cook hit a single to load the bases. Junior Andi Scheidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) need just one swing of the bat to clear the bases as he swatted his third grand slam of the season giving Miami an 8-2 advantage. With one out and the bases clear Galloway singled to left field bringing about an EMU pitching change. Carlin made the new Eagles pitcher pay by swatting his second dinger of the game deep over the trees in left field. The home run gave Carlin 17 on the season and tied him with Jason Knoedler (2001) for Miami's single-season record. Sophomore Ryan Edginton (Chester Springs, Pa./Arizona State) added one more run to the RedHawks' lead making it an 11-2 contest with a solo home run.

Cook tacked on another run to Miami's lead in the fifth frame by hitting a two-out solo home run over the left-field wall. The round-tripper was Miami's fourth of the game and Cook's 12th of the season.

Eastern Michigan narrowed the RedHawks' 12-2 lead by notching five runs in the sixth frame. The Eagles needed five hits to score the five runs, which included a three-run blast off the bat of Jenkins.

With the lead now 12-7 Carlin tacked on another Miami run by hitting his third home run in as many at-bats in the bottom of the sixth. It was the third time this season that Carlin has hit three home runs in a game and gave him sole possession of Miami's single-season dinger mark with 18.

Even with a six-run advantage the RedHawks' lead was still not safe as the Eagles notched three runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth to make it a one-run ball game 13-12. The stage was now set for Carlin to make Miami history as he was set to lead off for the RedHawks in the bottom of the eighth frame. Carlin watched three pitches before releasing the trigger on his record-breaking fourth home run of the contest giving Miami a 14-12 lead. It was the first time in Miami history that an individual has hit four home runs, and tied a MAC tournament record with four home runs overall. The round-tripper was Miami's seventh breaking a MAC single-game tournament record as well. Carlin has an opportunity to break the MAC tourney record by hitting one gopherball in tomorrow's contest.

Eastern Michigan managed one run in the ninth inning before senior Billy Kieninger (Xenia, Ohio/Xenia) put out the fire to preserve a 14-13 Miami victory. It was the second save of Kieninger's season and allowed Landis' record to improve to a perfect 8-0. Eastern Michigan starter Tom Gallus gets the loss after allowing nine runs in 3.1 innings of work falling to 4-6.

The RedHawks playoff hopes stay alive as they match-up tomorrow afternoon, Friday, May 24 at 1 p.m. against the loser of this afternoon's Kent State-Central Michigan contest.