Game Two:
Southern Miss Baseball could not find a way to get it done against Louisiana Tech on Saturday, losing 4-2. The strong pitching of Cade Gibson lifted Louisiana Tech and the Golden Eagles struggled to drive in baserunners.
A record 5,706 fans were in attendance, which broke a Pete Taylor Park record that was previously set earlier this season in a game against Alabama.
Southern Miss started the game on a hot streak, getting three hits from the first three batters.
Outfielder Reece Ewing drove in center fielder Gabe Montenegro and then first baseman Christopher Sargent fell into a double play, scoring Dickerson, and Southern Miss took the 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the second inning, Gabe Montenegro was hit by a fastball that knocked him right above the eye.
He was down for several minutes, and after he walked off, the energy seemed to be sucked away from the Golden Eagles after he exited the contest.
“It really did. But we should have had some energy after that, but it hurts losing Gabe. I don’t know how long he is gonna be out. But I hate to see that.” left fielder Reece Ewing said.
The Bulldogs’ starting pitcher had an impressive outing, and after the first inning, he blanked the Golden Eagles.
“You know, you gotta tip your hat to their starter, he did a great job. We took the fastball away from him and then every inning after that he pitched backward and really had his off-speed working,” Berry said.
Louisiana Tech scored in the fourth inning on a fielder’s choice RBI and took the lead for good in the fifth. After leadoff singles by Logan McLeod and Wade Elliott, Steele Netterville blasted a pitch over the left-field wall and took the lead 4-2.
Hunter Riggins, the starting pitcher for Southern Miss, took the loss. His final line was 6 IP, 5 H, 4 ERs, 6 Ks, 1 BB on 85 pitches.
A positive note for the Golden Eagles is Blake Johnson returned from injury after missing several weeks with a hand injury.
Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech will face each other one more time on Sunday for the series win.
First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
Game One:
Southern Miss Baseball kept their momentum from a series sweep last weekend by beating conference foe Louisiana Tech 8-2 on Friday night.
Right-handed pitcher Tanner Hall lifted the Golden Eagles with a stellar performance on the mound. The Golden Eagles also hit the ball well, which helped propel them to victory.
Hall pitched eight innings, allowing just six hits and two unearned runs. Hall had a career-high 102 pitches in the game, with 76 of those pitches being strikes. Hall also tallied 11 strikeouts and no walks.
“And if you have the pitching as we did with Tanner, it will be hard to win today if you are the other team,” Head Coach Scott Berry said. “What can you say? 11 strikeouts, no walks, covered on eight innings, 102 pitches…”
Between the third and sixth innings, Hall had downed eight batters in a row and did it with ease.
“It’s just kind of the same strategies, just attack hitters because that is what we do as a pitching staff, and that is what we have done all year, and we have seen success, so that gives us a lot more confidence going back out there and doing the same thing,” Hall said.
Hall picked up his fourth win of the season, and he has stamped his place in the weekend rotation.
The bats were out last weekend against Western Kentucky, and they were there for the first game as well.
The Golden Eagles got things going with a double in the bottom of the first by shortstop Dustin Dickerson. Reece Ewing then blasted a two-run homer to right field to give the Golden Eagles the early lead, and they never looked back after that.
Outfielder Carson Paetow gave the dugout something to get fired up about in the bottom of the eighth after second baseman Will McGillis led off the inning with a single.
Paetow crushed a first-pitch fastball and homered to center field. The home run gave the Eagles a commanding 8-2 lead.
“We definitely feed off each other a lot. The energy is unreal in that dugout, and when one of our buddies does good, we love each other a lot, and we are really close.” Paetow said.
McGillis led off the third inning with a home run of his own to give Southern Miss a 3-0 lead, and a couple more runs were batted in by center-fielder Gabe Montenegro and Dickerson.
“We swung it well last weekend at Western Kentucky, and it just carried over into today. We had some great at-bats. I think the thing that impressed me is how we use the whole field, we hit well with two strikes, and obviously, when you hit three home runs, it’s huge,” Berry said.
Southern Miss moves to 18-7 and 6-1 in conference play. The series resumes Saturday with the first pitch set for 2 p.m.
