Nicholls State used both a strong starting pitching performance and good offensive middle innings to defeat Southern Miss 5-4 on Friday.

The Colonels, which snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Golden Eagles, overcame a 3-1 deficit by scoring in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Seth Webster held Southern Miss to four runs over 62⁄3 innings to get the victory.

“On offense, as a team, we just didn’t make the adjustments we have to make off that starter to create some runs there in the middle innings,” USM coach Scott Berry said. “That was the whole key — the way they controlled the game in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings was just giving us nothing to go on. We didn’t have any good at-bats in the middle innings of that game.”

The visitors rallied from their deficit by tallying a solo run in the fourth on a bases-loaded wild pitch, before taking the lead in the fifth with a pair of runs. After an out and a single, Blake Bergeron reached base on a catcher’s interference by Chase Fowler. The Colonels got RBI singles from both Beau Faulk and Michael LaGrange to put Nicholls State ahead for good.