June 4, 2005

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Micah Owings drove in five runs, including four on a pair of rising home runs that cleared the scoreboard 430 feet away and landed in a yard across the street, as top seed Tulane beat Alabama 10-4 in the second round of the New Orleans NCAA regional on Saturday.

The victory sends Tulane (52-9), the No. 1 seed nationally, into Sunday's third round as the only undefeated team in the regional.

Second seed Alabama (39-22) will play Louisiana-Lafayette in Sunday's first game. The Ragin Cajuns eliminated Southern 9-1 earlier Saturday. The winner will play Tulane Sunday night.

Greg Dini's sacrifice fly put the Green Wave up 1-0 in the first inning.

In the third inning, Joe Holland doubled and Brad Emaus was hit with a pitch to set the stage for Owings.

Owings, who was the Conference USA Player of the Year and took weekly honors as both the pitcher of the week and the hitter of the week, slammed his 17th homer of the season which was still rising as it cleared the scoreboard. Owings knocked in another run in the fifth to give Tulane a 5-0 lead.

The Crimson Tide had struggled at the plate coming into its 17th NCAA regional. In Friday's game coach Jim Wells successfully juggled his lineup in an effort to get hits.

He was less successful against Tulane starter Brian Bogusevic (13-1) who went 7 1/3 innings and gave up eight hits while striking out five and walking five.

Alabama rallied in the fifth with four hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly to score three runs. The Tide pulled even closer on Cale Iorg's seventh-inning home run that cut the lead to 5-4.

In the top of the eighth, Nathan Southard doubled in two insurance runs, putting Tulane up 7-4. Owings drove his second homer over the scoreboard in the ninth. Mark Hamilton, who had a grand slam in Tulane's first game, had a two-run homer that made it 10-4.

Wells was ejected in the bottom of the eighth for arguing a call at first. Zac Welch was called out at first but he and Wells argued that Bogusevic had not stepped on the bag. In television replays it appeared that Bogusevic's foot had been beside the base.

Brent Carter (7-4) took the loss.