Friday, May 10, 2002

Eldred's blast breaks no-hitter,
propels FIU to 1-0 conference win over New Orleans

rad Eldred (Coconut Creek, Fla.) blasted his 21st home run of the season leading off the seventh inning, for FIU's first hit of the game, and pitchers Derek DeCarlo (Miami, Fla.) and Josh Banks (Arnold, Md.) combined on a seven hitter as the Golden Panther beat New Orleans, 1-0, Friday night in a Sun Belt Conference game played at University Park.

The home run tied the FIU school record for most home runs in a single season, a record set in 1998 by former Golden Panther third baseman Luis Fernandez.

FIU (35-14, 9-10 SBC) won for the fourth-straight time while the Privateers (26-24, 11-11) saw their modest four-game win streak come to an end.

DeCarlo and UNO starter Jeff Stander (2-3) hooked up in a pitchers dual until Eldred's homer. Stander, who faced just four batters over the minimum pitching to Eldred in the seventh, fell behind 3-1. Eldred took the next pitch thinking it was outside and started toward first base. But the umpire called it a strike and Eldred begrudgingly returned to the plate.

With the count 3-2, Eldred took the next pitch and sent a towering fly ball that cleared the scoreboard in left-center field, some 390 feet away.

That's all that DeCarlo needed. The freshman right-hander went eight innings allowing five hits and five walks, four of those coming in the first two innings. But seven strikeouts and two turned double plays behind him kept UNO off the scoreboard as the Privateers left 10 runners on base and DeCarlo won his tenth game of the season without a defeat.

Banks earned his third save of the year pitching the ninth inning despite giving up a pair of infield hits.

FIU, which came into the game with a .342 team average that ranked third-best in Division I, was kept off balance all night by Stander who went the distance allowing only one more hit after Edlred's blast, an eighth inning single to pinch hitter Daniel Bustamente (Norwark, Conn.).

Center fielder Drew Pizza had a pair of hits and designated hitter Chris Adams had a seventh-inning double to lead UNO.

With only five Sun Belt Conference games remaining on the schedule and needing a league record above .500 to be considered for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament later this month, FIU head coach Danny Price knows just how important each of these final games are.

"We struggled so much in conference play this season and we knew coming in that we need to win to keep our hopes alive," said Price.

"Tonight's win took some of the pressure off but at the same time, all it did was keep us alive. Tomorrow is another big ball game and we need to come out with the intensity we showed tonight.

"It was a shame that either of these pitchers had to take a loss tonight because I thought both were very competitive. It was a great pitched ball game and it was fortunate tonight that Brad got the big hit when we needed one."

The Golden Panthers and Privateers meet for the second game of the three-game set Saturday at 1 p.m. Sunday's game, originally scheduled for 1 p.m. has been pushed up at hour to a noon first pitch.