Southern Miss baseball got back on the right track after a stunning loss to Southeastern Louisiana last Tuesday with a road series win over South Alabama.
While Sunday continued to be difficult for Southern Miss to close out teams, the Golden Eagles were able to take the series from the Jaguars after back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday.
In the weekend’s first contest on Friday night, the Golden Eagles were lifted by a hit from Ozzie Pratt into no-man land just behind shortstop for the go-ahead run to score in the top of the eleventh inning, leading USM past South Alabama 6-5.
Dalton McIntyre continued his incredible run at the plate, leading the Golden Eagles with three of their 10 hits, while Slade Wilks and Billy Butler collected a pair of hits each, respectively.
Southern Miss started out with the lead first after Davis Gillespie opened the second inning with a single, and Tucker Stockman reached on a fielding error before Gabe Broadus loaded the bases with a base on balls.
McIntyre then batted in the game’s first run with a single through the right side, before Wilks knocked in a pair with a single to left field to put Southern Miss up 3-0.
Stockman added a fourth run in the third inning, with an RBI single.
The Jaguars cut into the lead at the bottom of the third inning with a pair of runs from the Golden Eagle starter Niko Mazza. They eventually would tie the game on a two-run home run in the sixth inning by Joseph Sullivan.
Southern Miss took the lead in the top of the ninth, when Wilks batted in McIntyre. But the Jaguars wouldn’t go away, scoring a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The teams traded zero before Pratt’s go-ahead RBI single in the eleventh.
In Saturday’s game, Southern Miss controlled it from the start and never looked back. Led by a stellar pitching performance from Billy Oldham and Chandler Best, the Golden Eagles won the series with a 5-1 decision over the Jaguars.
In the opening frame, Southern Miss put together four singles from McIntyre, Pratt, Billy Butler and Gillespie. McIntyre and Pratt scored in the frame, putting Southern Miss up 2-0 early.
Wilks extended the Golden Eagle lead with a no-doubter solo homer to right to open the third inning. The homer was his seventh of the year and the 39th of his career, which tied him for 10th on the school’s career chart.
After the Jaguars put together their only run in the third, the Golden Eagles put two more runs up in the fifth inning.
Stockman led off the inning with a two-base error, and then after McIntyre was hit by a pitch, Pratt and Wilks collected back-to-back sac-flys to put the visitors up 5-1.
Oldham limited the Jaguars to just three hits, one earned run along five strikeouts in 6 ⅓ innings of work.
Best went 2 ⅔ and didn’t allow a hit and no runs, along with three strikeouts.
In Sunday’s finale, Southern Miss once again scored early on a pair of runs. McIntyre led off with a single, followed by a Pratt double and then Wilk’s RBI double to put USM up 2-0 early.
But the Jaguars responded in the bottom of the first. After Southern Miss starter Will Armistead plunked the first two batters he saw, Lucas Ismali tripled into right field to tie the game at two a piece.
Then a sac-bunt, socred him later in the inning to put the Jaguars up 3-2.
Peatow came up with an RBI double in the third to tie the game at three a piece, before South Alabama responded with a couple of RBI singles in their half of the third to go up 5-3.
Southern Miss tied the game once again in the fourth with an RBI single from McIntyre and an RBI double from Pratt.
The Jaguars took the lead back in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single before USM tied it with a Paetow single in the sixth.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, South Alabama took the lead for good with an RBI single and an RBI triple to go up 8-6 and eventually win with that score.
While the Golden Eagles do win the series, Sunday games have been questionably tough for Southern Miss to win this season. They have only won on Sunday three times this season, with two of those being in rubber matches.
They are 1-4 this season when playing for a sweep.
