Carson Paetow went three for four from the plate, with a home run and three RBIs, to lead Southern Miss past Tulane 9-4.

“I love baseballs,” Paetow said. “I think hitting them is good.”

Paetow reached base in every at-bat except the last and nailed his fifth home run of the year in the third inning. He was inches away from the cycle when a steamer up the first base line just went foul.

“Man, he got some really good swings off and was very aggressive,” Ostrander said. “He needed that, and we needed that too, so I was very proud of him.”

The win ended the Golden Eagle’s one-game losing streak after dropping the rubber match against Georgia Southern over the weekend. Southern Miss has been struggling from the plate, from the mound, and in the field over the past and Ostrander had seen enough of it.

“I feel like there have been a game or two over the past few weeks that have gotten a little tight at the plate,” Ostrander said. “It’s hard to play this game that way. The message today was relax and enjoy the game.”

Tonight, Southern Miss put 14 hits on the board, nine runs, and one error.

Southern Miss took the lead in the first inning when Slade Wilks reached first base with a base on balls. After Billy Butler’s single, Paetow came up with an RBI single to put Southern Miss up 1-0.

Southern Miss extended its lead in the third with Paetow’s home run, which traveled 103 miles per hour and 359 feet just over the right field wall to put USM up 2-0.

“It was a three-two curveball,” Paetow said. “And we have been really working on two-strike hitting.”

Tulane had a very similar home run later in the fifth when Brock Slaton drove his third home run of the season to tie the game at a piece in the fifth inning.

But not before Southern Miss’s offense blew open the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. Nick Monistere batted in two runs with a double over the third baseman’s head before Lawson Odom came up with a two-RBI-single to put USM up 6-2.

In the sixth, Paetow scored his third RBI of the game when he doubled to right field, putting Southern Miss on top 7-2. Wilks added another pair of runs in the seventh inning with a double to center field, making the final score 9-2.

The Golden Eagles had 14  hits and nine runs. For comparison, Southern Miss just had 23 hits and 11 runs all weekend vs Georgia Southern, with 15 of those coming in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday.

While the Golden Eagles did put a lot of runs on the board, they still left many runs out there with 12 players left on base at the conclusion of the game.

On the pitching side, McCarty English recorded his first colligate start. He pitched a good two innings, only surrendering one hit, and added a strikeout. After English, Chandler Best recorded two innings pitched, only surrendered one hit, and recorded four strikeouts on his day.

“We didn’t want to tax anyone too much where they can’t bounce back Thursday or Friday,” Ostrander said. “We knew we were going to piece it together and I thought we did a great job.”

Southern Miss improved to 16-9, 4-2, and will take on Troy (17-9) in a weekend series that starts on Thursday.