Top-seeded East Carolina faces a tough road to the title of the Conference USA baseball touranment after losing in second round, 5-2 to host Southern Miss on Thursday night.
The 15th-ranked Pirates (42-16) play Tulane at 1:30 p.m. today in an elimination game and will face Southern Miss again tonight at 8:30 if they win the afternoon contest.
Thursday night, East Carolina's offense didn't provide much support for starter Seth Maness, who lost for the first time in eight starts and dropped to 9-1. Maness shut out the Golden Eagles (34-22) through six innings, but the Pirates mustered just a pair of runs to lead 2-0.
Maness gave up two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth, pitching 7 1/3 innings. He gave up seven hits and three walks while striking out four.
Brandon Henderson drove in both Pirates runs.
Now, ECU has to battle back to win their division in the double-elimination tournament. If they win twice today, they will have beat Southern Miss again on Saturday to advance to Sunday's championship game.
