USM loses, maintains C-USA lead
Published 12:04 am Sunday, May 15, 2011
Southern Miss finally played a one-run game it didn’t win.
Caleb Ramsey’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning broke a 5-all tie, and Houston hung on down the stretch to beat Southern Miss 6-5 on Saturday night.
Southern Miss left a runner on base in each of the last three innings and had a five-game winning streak snapped. USM’s last three games have all been decided either in the last at-bat or by one run, and it had won the first two.
Despite the setback, Southern Miss remained in good shape to win the Conference USA regular-season championship. Memphis beat second-place Rice, 5-3, earlier Saturday, allowing Southern Miss to maintain a two-game lead in the conference with four to play.
Southern Miss (37-12, 15-5 C-USA) and Rice (34-17, 13-7) finish the regular season with a three-game series in Hattiesburg beginning on Thursday night.
Houston (23-27, 10-10), which is tied for fourth place with Memphis, jumped out to a 5-0 lead with five runs in the second inning Saturday night. Southern Miss came back with two in the third and two in the fourth, however, and tied it on an RBI single by Kameron Brunty in the sixth.
In the bottom half of the inning, Houston’s Landon Appling led off with a single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a wild pitch, then scored what turned out to be the winning run on Ramsey’s fly ball.
Ramsey finished the game with three RBIs. Appling had two hits and scored two runs, while Dustin Fuerst allowed one run in five innings of relief to earn the victory.
Tyler Koelling went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for Southern Miss and Ashley Graeter was 2-for-4.