Heading into the weekend series on an eight-game winning streak and two consecutive conference series sweeps, Southern Miss (17-8, 7-2 C-USA) lost its road series against the UTSA Roadrunners from March 29-31, but the Golden Eagles were able to get a win in Game 3 of the series to end the weekend.
In Game 1 on Friday, UTSA jumped out to an early lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Southern Miss tied the game up in the third inning with a home run from Bryant Bowen, but UTSA retook the lead in the third inning on an RBI single.
The Roadrunners then added six runs in the fifth inning, including two home runs, to expand their lead over the Golden Eagles to 8-1. UTSA continued its scoring tear in the sixth inning with three more runs and one more run in the seventh inning to take a 12-1 lead. A Matt Wallner RBI single in the top of the ninth inning cut UTSA’s lead to 12-2, but Southern Miss was unable to garner any more runs in the loss.
Overall, Southern Miss was outhit 15-3 in the contest, with Wallner and Bowen accounting for all of the team’s hits in the game. On the mound, Walker Powell took the loss after allowing seven hits and four runs over 4.1 innings pitched.
UTSA took an early lead over Southern Miss once again in Game 2. Solo runs in the bottom of the first and second innings gave the Roadrunners a 2-0 lead over the Golden Eagles.
After scoreless third and fourth innings for both teams, Southern Miss took its first lead of the game in the top of the fifth inning. Danny Lynch scored a run, which was followed by Will McGillis scoring on a Matthew Guidry RBI triple and Guidry scoring later in the inning on a wild pitch to take a 3-2 lead.
However, the Roadrunners scored a run in the bottom half of the fifth inning to tie the game up again at 3-3.
Southern Miss earned the lead back in the top of the sixth inning on a Danny Lynch RBI single and then added another run on another Lynch RBI single to take a 5-3 lead in the contest.
Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, UTSA scored three runs on a two-RBI single and subsequent throwing error to take a 6-3 walk-off win and the series win.
In their final chance for a win in the series on Sunday, Southern Miss started off the game trailing 1-0 after an RBI single from UTSA in the second inning. However, Southern Miss scored five consecutive runs over the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 5-1 lead.
Another UTSA RBI hit in the sixth inning cut the Southern Miss lead to 5-2, but the Golden Eagles responded with two runs scored on an error and two more on an RBI single from Will McGillis in the seventh inning to extend the lead to 9-2.
In the bottom of the seventh, UTSA cut the Southern Miss lead significantly, scoring four runs in the inning to close the Southern Miss lead to 9-6. Once again, the Golden Eagles responded with four runs scored in the eighth inning and another in the ninth inning to end the game with a 14-6 win.
The Golden Eagles collected 13 hits overall in the contest. Notably, McGillis was 3-for-3 with four RBI at the plate in Game 3, while Hunter Slater, Bowen, Hunter LeBlanc and Guidry each had two hits in the game.
Sean Tweedy earned the win on the mound after allowing a hit and striking out one batter in 2.1 innings pitched. Seven Southern Miss pitchers appeared in the contest.
The next conference series for Southern Miss is a three-game home series against Marshall from April 5-7. First pitch for Game 1 on April 5 is set for 6 p.m.
