Conference Carolinas baseball
By Staff Reports
Published in Sports on April 12, 2010 1:46 PM
WILSON -- No. 7-ranked Mount Olive College earned the top seed for the season-ending Conference Carolinas baseball tournament, which begins Thursday.
The Trojans (34-8 overall) clinched their fourth regular-season championship in the past five years with a 2-1 series sweep over Erskine (S.C.) this weekend. They will play sixth-seeded Anderson, which claimed the final tournament spot with a 3-1 victory over Pfeiffer (23-25) on Sunday afternoon.
First pitch is Thursday at 7 p.m. at Fleming Stadium.
MOC has claimed nine regular-season conference crowns and eight tournament titles since moving to Division II in 1995-96.
The Flying Fleet (35-12) secured the No. 2 seed and face fifth-seeded Barton (21-24) in the opening round. Defending champion Belmont Abbey (17-21) takes on fourth-seeded Pfeiffer.
The double-elimination tournament will be contested at historic Fleming Stadium and Nixon Field, which is on the Barton campus. The champion grabs the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.
Pirates take series
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Sophomore Kevin Brandt struck out a career-best 11 batters and tossed his first career complete game, helping No. 27-ranked East Carolina to a 3-2 win over Memphis and its first Conference USA series win of the season.
The Pirates improved to 20-12 overall and 3-3 in league play, while the Tigers drop to 14-18 and 5-4.
Brandt (3-4), who picked up his third win of the season, retired 19 of the last 20 Tigers he faced with Trey Wiedman reaching on an error with two outs in the ninth. From the third inning on, Brandt fanned seven batters including Adam McClain to end the game. Brandt allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits without allowing a walk.