The Southern Miss baseball team swept C-USA opponent Old Dominion this past weekend on the road. Southern Miss extended its winning streak to nine games and improved its record to 32-11 and 16-4 in conference play.
The bats were sluggish for both sides in the opening game of the series, but a solid performance behind the arm of junior Nick Sandlin allowed Southern Miss to find its offense. It took seven innings, but the Golden Eagles finally managed to take advantage of a Mason Irby walk. Matthew Guidry delivered an RBI-double down the right field line that allowed Irby to score and gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game, 1-0. The Golden Eagles added another run in the top of the ninth to solidify the win.
Nick Sandlin faced 30 batters and recorded 10 strikeouts. Sandlin only allowed three hits on the night and walked two. Sandlin did not allow more than one runner to occupy the bases the entire contest. The shutout victory gave Sandlin his sixth win on the season, which kept his record a perfect 6-0.
After only recording nine hits in game one, Southern Miss bounced back in game two with 15 hits to claim the 9-4 victory.
The Golden Eagles took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning after Daniel Keating homered to left field, his fourth of the season. In the fourth inning, Guidry and Reynolds each had doubles that each allowed a run to score, extending the Southern Miss lead to 4-1.
Southern Miss answered later in the game by scoring two-runs in consecutive innings to kill the Monarchs’ chances.
Southern Miss put four pitchers on the mound, and all of them delivered. Starter Stevie Powers pitched four innings and allowed three runs on eight hits and one strikeout. In the two and a half innings he pitched, reliever Trent Driver allowed one run and one hit from the 10 batters he faced.
Southern Miss’ explosive offense carried over to game three as it recorded another 15-hit game. This relentless offense helped Southern Miss complete the sweep, 9-2.
The Golden Eagles yet again got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning of game three. Matt Wallner kicked off scoring with an RBI single, which was followed by an RBI double from Keating that allowed one more run to score in the inning.
Old Dominion answered in the bottom of the second inning with one run scored, but the consistent offense from the Golden Eagles proved to be too much. The Golden Eagles managed to score in six of nine innings and recorded two runs in three of those innings to seal the win.
Southern Miss will look to build upon this success in their Tuesday game against rival Tulane at home and then travel to play the University of Alabama at Birmingham starting on May 4 with first pitch at 6:30 p.m.
