By: Dima Mixon

If someone were to tell Head Coach Scott Berry that he would get ten hits and seven runs, he would be happy. No. 14 Southern Miss got just that and still came up just short against UTSA by a final score of 8-7

“They would never let us have the momentum and every time that we did they would answer I think all but one inning.” Berry said

Southern Miss has now dropped six of its last nine games and is trending in the opposite direction of where they were a couple of weeks ago.

The game began shakily for the Eagles, as starting pitcher Tanner Hall would hit the first batter, then two singles would get the bases loaded with no outs. Hall would then walk in a UTSA run to go down 1-0. 

After the first inning, Hall would down 11 out of the 13 batters he faced over the next four. Southern Miss’s bats would finally come alive in the bottom of the fifth inning. After back-to-back leadoff singles by Danny Lynch and Will McGillis, Carson Paetow would blast a three-run homer over the right-field wall to give Southern Miss a 3-1 lead. 

UTSA would quickly get the momentum right back after Hall would load the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth. This would begin a long sixth inning that UTSA would use to take control of the game. Sammy Diaz would come up with an RBI single, followed by a Leyton Berry fielder’s choice RBI to make the score 3-3. 

Then Ian Bailey would walk, UTSA would score on a wild pitch, Austin Ochoa would come up with an RBI single, and Jonathan Tapia would add another on a fielder’s choice RBI. After an RBI-single, Ryan Flores would come up with the sixth and final run of the frame to give the Roadrunners a 7-3 margin. 

“Obviously, not what we were hoping for,” Berry said on Hall. “The hit by pitch, the walks, and two of those innings proved to be really, really tough on him.” 

Southern Miss would start to chip away at the deficit. In the bottom of the sixth, Carson Paetow would be credited with a sac-fly RBI to bring the score to 7-4. After UTSA got a run in the top of the seventh, Dustin Dickerson would score on a fielder’s choice RBI to bring the score to 8-5. 

Southern Miss would plate two more runs in the bottom of the eighth after a Gabe Montenegro RBI-single and Dustin Dickerson RBI-double. However, that would be it as untimely strikeouts continued to haunt the Golden Eagles night.  

“We got the bases loaded and we’ve already scored two runs. We’ve got the tying run at third and the winning run at second. We are in great shape with the four and five-hole hitters up. We go back to back strikeouts on pitches outside of the zone. I think that was the story.” Berry said. 

Southern Miss falls to 36-14 (18-7), but they remain one game ahead of the Roadrunners in the Conference USA standings.