May 25, 2006

Charleston, S.C. - UNC Greensboro's Shane Thompson hit a game-winning bloop single just over the Furman third baseman's head in the bottom of the ninth to score Adam Deleo from second base and give the Spartans a 5-4 victory in a loser's bracket contest at the 2006 Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.

With the loss the defending SoCon Tournament champion Paladins become the first team since 1991-1992 to win the championship and then bow out in their first two tournament games the next season. Ironically, the 1991-1992 Paladins were the last teams to accomplish the feat.

UNC Greensboro (26-32) moves on to face the loser of the #1 Elon-#5 The Citadel contest at 1 p.m. on Friday. Furman concludes it 2006 season with a 32-33 record.

The Paladins were down 4-3 going into the top of the ninth inning, but squared the game at 4-4 on a Will Stembridge single that hit off the pitcher and scored Joey Rodgers.

Furman was able to finagle the game's first run in the top of the fifth inning on a home run by Joey Rodgers. The ball went over the left field wall, hanging just fair inside the foul pole.

In the bottom of the inning UNC Greensboro's Logan Smith seemingly hit a ball over the wall for a home run, but the ball hit off the scoreboard at Riley Park in left field, giving Smith a double and scoring Adam Deleo and Roly Gonzalez to garner the Spartans their first lead at 2-1.

The Spartans added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Jermaine Mitchell hit for his first RBI of the day when he tripled down the right field line off Paladin relief pitcher Ryan Hudson to send Sean Snell to the dish.

Mitchell added the second run of the inning on the next batter, as Guy Welsh sacrificed bunted Mitchell home from third to put UNCG ahead at 4-1.

Furman had a stellar chance to even the game or go ahead in the top of the eighth inning, but the Spartans and relief pitcher Greg Martin were able to get out of the jam with a one-run lead.

Furman loaded the bases with no outs to commence the inning with Case Cassedy at the dish. Cassedy fanned looking to give the Spartans their first out of the inning.

Joe Daysh then grounded out up the middle into what could have been the final two outs of the stanza, but the Paladins were able to tally two runs on an errant double-play effort by shortstop Thompson that skipped past UNCG first baseman Logan Smith, allowing Furman's Stembridge and A.J. Davidiuk the opportunity to score and place the Paladins one behind at 4-3.

The Paladins still had runners in scoring position with two outs in the inning, but Martin was able to strike out catcher Tony Maccani to end the inning and thwart the Paladins efforts at squaring the contest.