May 27, 2004

Charleston, SC - On a wild and wacky first day of the Southern Conference baseball tournament, Citadel pitcher Jon Ellis restored some semblance of order.

After top-seeded College of Charleston and No. 2 Georgia Southern were upset -- the first time since 1994 the top two seeds have lost in the first round -- Ellis made sure the same fate did not befall the third-seeded Bulldogs.

Ellis, named to the all-SoCon first team, pitched his seventh complete game of the season as the Bulldogs took a 6-2 victory over No. 6 East Tennessee State before 4,151 fans at Riley Park on Wednesday night.

"I heard about the upsets," said Ellis, who gave up no earned runs while striking out nine. "But I couldn't let that get in my head. We were playing ETSU, not the teams that got upset. Maybe we'll see those guys down the road, maybe we won't. Hopefully, we'll stay in the winners' bracket."

The Citadel (34-25) advanced to a winners' bracket game at 7:30 p.m. today against seventh-seeded Davidson, an upset winner over Georgia Southern. The Bulldogs swept Davidson during the regular season. ETSU (28-29) faces Georgia Southern at 1 p.m. in an elimination game. Matt Covington smacked a double and a triple and drove in two runs, and Jon Aughey hit a solo home run for the Bulldogs, who put together 13 hits.

But it was Ellis (10-3) who controlled the game. The junior from St. Andrews High School handcuffed an ETSU offense that ranked No. 2 in the SoCon in runs scored. Bucs catcher Caleb Moore, the SoCon's player of the year with a .466 batting average that leads the nation, was a harmless 1-for-4. And the first five spots in ETSU's lineup were a combined 3 for 21 with no runs batted-in.

"A typical Jon Ellis performance," said Citadel coach Fred Jordan, whose team is 16-0 in SoCon games at Riley Park this season. "He handled himself through five innings, got in one jam and fought out of that, and and then really pitched well in the eighth and ninth inning. That was a big win for us."

It was especially big given the Bucs' sweep of The Citadel earlier this season, when ETSU scored 34 runs in three games. The Bucs touched up Ellis for eight runs in 6-2/3 innings of a 10-9 win to start that series.

The Bulldogs' Covington, a sophomore centerfielder, broke open a tight game with a two-run triple in the seventh, giving The Citadel a 5-0 lead. Covington's second hit of the game scored Will Coker, who had doubled, and Matt Matulia, who reached on a walk.

The Bucs finally got to Ellis for two runs in the eighth, loading the bases on a single, a walk and an error. With two out, Jordan paid a visit to the mound, but left Ellis in the game. ETSU's Josiah Glafenhein stroked a two-run single, but Ellis got Greg Roberts to pop up and preserve a 5-2 lead.

Aughey got one run back in the bottom of the inning, yanking his eighth homer over the left-field fence.

The Bulldogs took advantage of a shaky start by ETSU and scored single runs in the first and third for a 2-0 lead. The Bucs' all-SoCon shortstop, Andy Howdeshell, let Covington's lead-off grounder go through his legs for an error. Covington moved over on Chris Ard's bunt and scored on Josh Stackley's single to right.

In the third, Stackley led off with a solid single to left and got to second on a passed ball. Chip Cannon's grounder to the right side moved Stackley to third, and he scored on Aughey's single to center.

-- Sophomore pitcher Ken Egleton (7-2) will start today for the Bulldogs against Davidson.