By: Dima Mixon

Southern Miss baseball failed to deliver in their performance on Wednesday night. In front of 6,346, the largest crowd in Pete Taylor Park history, the 14th ranked Golden Eagles fell to in-state rival Ole Miss by 4-1. 

“Very non-competitive at bats” is what Head Coach Scott Berry pointed to for the loss. 

“We never really had a chance. Out of the nine innings we had four of them where we had runners in scoring position, and we couldn’t get them in,” Berry said. 

Southern Miss could only muster five hits and just one run on a Christopher Sargent bomb. 

“They played well, they showed up and played. We were coming into a pillow fight, and we were swinging the pillows,” Berry said. 

However, Southern Miss’s pitching was still giving the Golden Eagles the plays it needed to win the baseball game. Matt Adams got the start and started the game red hot. After giving up a single to start the game, he retired the next eight batters. 

Kevin Graham homered to bring two runs in after a single by Jacob Gonzalez to give the Rebels the 2-1 lead. After Graham’s homer, Kemp Alderman blasted a solo shot off the new scoreboard to extend Ole Miss’s lead to 3-1. 

Ole Miss would then extend the lead after a Tim Elko RBI single in the fifth.

“You know holding that offense to me with that personnel, they have four runs and our relief pitchers coming in and throwing up those zeros and at least giving our offense a chance, we’ve seen it numerous times,” Berry said.

Southern Miss could not respond when it mattered most  and that is what teams have to do at this point in the season. 

“We have to get stronger mentally. This is a mental game right now and then certainly it is for us here offensively as well,” Berry said. 

Southern Miss will welcome UTSA to Pete Taylor Park this weekend to potentially battle for the top seed in the Conference Tournament. 

The first pitch is on Friday at 6 pm.