Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com

After a difficult start to the NCAA baseball regional tournament, Southern Miss rebounded with a string of wins to force a decisive Game 7 against Miami.
The Golden Eagles opened regional play Friday night with an 11-4 loss to Columbia. Southern Miss entered the game following a Sun Belt Championship defeat to No. 8 Coastal Carolina.
Struggles with hitting and pitching impacted the Golden Eagles’ opening performance. The team, which finished the regular season with a .305 batting average, recorded just five hits and four runs against Columbia. Southern Miss went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
In their second game, the Golden Eagles bounced back with a narrow 6-5 victory over Alabama. The early innings were scoreless before Alabama’s Will Plattner hit a solo home run in the third. Southern Miss responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning and added another in the fourth. Both teams continued to exchange runs, but the game was sealed in the top of the ninth when third baseman Sean Smith recorded a force out at third base on a groundball by Alabama’s Richie Bonomolo.
In a rematch against Columbia, Southern Miss advanced to the championship round with an 8-1 win. After a slow start from both teams, the Golden Eagles pulled away in the sixth inning and continued to score in every inning through the ninth. Southern Miss recorded three runs in the eighth.
Freshman pitcher Grayden Harris commented on handling the high-pressure situation.
“Really just attack the hitters early,” Harris said. “Some games earlier this season I would get behind early in counts and it would just lead to not the outcome I wanted, so going into this outing I knew I needed to attack the hitters early.”
In Game 4 against Miami, Southern Miss relied on its power hitting to earn a 17-6 victory. Joey Urban led the team with two home runs, while first baseman Matthew Russo and catcher Tucker Stockman each added one.
Head coach Christian Ostrander praised the team’s resilience after playing two games on Sunday.
“You can’t do what they did today without having some toughness and some grit,” Ostrander said.
Southern Miss added four runs in the ninth inning to close out the game and force a winner-take-all matchup against Miami on Monday at 8 p.m.