TULANE 9, Oklahoma St. 8

<br>NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ James Jurries drove in a pair of runs to lift Tulane to a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over Oklahoma State in NCAA regional play Sunday. <br><br>With the victory, Tulane (53-10)

Sunday, May 27th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ James Jurries drove in a pair of runs to lift Tulane to a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over Oklahoma State in NCAA regional play Sunday.

With the victory, Tulane (53-10) advances to the super regional for the first time in the school's history. The Green Wave will play either LSU or Virginia Commonwealth.

Regional MVP Joey Charron (9-1) picked up his fifth victory in eight days and his third of the tournament.

``It was a tremendous win, not just for our team but for our program, because it is the first regional we have ever won,'' coach Rick Jones.

By the top of the fourth, the Cowboys (42-22) had a 7-1 lead. But the Green Wave scored a pair of runs in the fourth, a run in the fifth and three in the seventh to tie the game at 7-7.

With the bases loaded and two out, Jurries got the game-winning, two-run hit in the eighth.

``We didn't get many breaks early on, but it was another comeback from our standpoint,'' Jones said. ``We had so many outstanding at-bats in the eighth.''

Paul Powell homered in the ninth to get the Cowboys within a run. But Charron got Rob Watson to fly out to end the game. Charron pitched 1 2-3 innings, allowing two hits and one run.

``We built a big lead, but they were able to chip away throughout the game. We didn't quite deliver the knockout punch,'' coach Tom Holliday said.

``You have to give Tulane a lot of credit. There were times in the game when we were able to take the emotion out of them, but they were able to regain it as the game went on.''

Reliever Nick McCurdy (7-5) was the loser, allowing two runs in 1 2-3 innings.

Jurries and Cannizaro each had three hits in five at-bats for Tulane, with Jurries adding three RBIs.

Nebasett Brown was 4-for-5 and Scott had three RBIs for the Cowboys.