Eagles soar to victory over Ole Miss|[4/05/06]
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 5, 2006
PEARL – Ole Miss didn’t have any comebacks up its sleeve this time. No rallies, heroes or drama, either.
Southern Miss saw to it that the gut-wrenching loss they had suffered at the hands of the Rebels last week wouldn’t be repeated Tuesday night by administering a mind-numbing 13-6 beatdown to their rivals from the northern half of the state.
A crowd of 5,282 fans witnessed the 3 1/2-hour drubbing at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
Jody Blount, Brian Dozier and Bailey Hartel – the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 hitters in the Southern Miss order – did most of the damage for the Golden Eagles. They each drove in three runs, and combined to go 7-for-13.
Michael Ewing also homered and drove in two runs for USM (22-9), and Toddric Johnson was 2-for-3 with three runs scored.
Former Vicksburg High star Justin Henry went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored for Ole Miss, and Zack Cozart and Alex Presley each had two RBIs. The Rebels were hurt, however, by four errors that led to seven unearned runs.
“Both teams hit the ball pretty good. The key is, there’s a zero in the error column for us and they had a little trouble defensively,” Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer said. “We played hard and smart. We didn’t have any mental mistakes for the first time in about five games.”
The loss snapped a brief four-game winning streak by Ole Miss (17-12), its longest of the season. The streak started a week ago when the Rebels blew a 7-3 lead before rallying twice to beat the Golden Eagles 9-8.
“Every loss is a setback, but we just have to get back to the way we were playing for this weekend,” said Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, whose team hosts Auburn in a Southeastern Conference series beginning on Friday in Oxford.
On Tuesday, Southern Miss had the Rebels playing catch-up all night, and Ole Miss was only able to do it once.
After USM staked itself to a 3-0 lead with three runs in the bottom of the second, the Rebels answered with three of their own in the top of the third. Henry started the rally with a bunt single, and a two-run triple by Cozart and an RBI double by Presley brought in the runs.
The tie was short-lived, though. A one-out single by Toddric Johnson and two walks loaded the bases in the bottom of the third before Trey Cuevas hit what should have been an inning-ending double play ball to third. The ball got to Ole Miss’ Chris Coghlan on one hop, but bounced off his glove. Johnson scored on the error to make it 4-3, and the floodgates opened for the Golden Eagles.
Former Warren Central star Kevin Coker brought in a run with a sacrifice fly, Blount delivered an RBI single and Hartel came through with a two-run single to put Southern Miss ahead 8-3.
“We made a couple of errors, but you have to give them credit because they capitalized with a couple of big hits,” said Henry, the Ole Miss second baseman who committed one error in the fifth inning. He atoned for a bounced throw to first on a tough play by turning a double play later in the inning, and his error did not lead to a run.
Ole Miss got one run back in the fourth on C.J. Ketchum’s RBI single, but left the bases loaded. Blount brought in two more runs for Southern Miss with a single in the bottom of the inning, and Ole Miss never put together another rally. Only a solo home run by Mark Wright and an RBI single by Presley added to their total.
Southern Miss relievers Brad Owen and Patrick Ezell helped settled things down after the torrid start.
They combined to allow two runs, five hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings of relief. Owen (3-0), who threw 2 2/3 innings, earned the win.
Ole Miss’ starter, Will Kline (0-2), gave up eight runs – only two earned – in 2 2/3 innings and took the loss.
“Owen and Ezell did a good job in the middle. We needed that,” Palmer said. “They put the stop to it. It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth.”
La. Tech 13, Mississippi St 12.
Matt Lacy hit a game winning RBI as Louisiana Tech rallied with a seven-run ninth inning to beat No. 3 Mississippi State.
Brad Jones’ two-run homer in the second inning gave Mississippi State (22-4) a lead the Bulldogs held until Tech rallied in the final inning.
Tech (15-13) was trailing 12-4 in the ninth and had two outs before putting nine straight batters on base.
Brandon Hudson (1-0) pitched the win and Mike Valentine (0-2) took the loss.