Southern Miss wins with walk-off homer

Published 11:35 am Monday, March 24, 2014

Dylan Burdeaux

Dylan Burdeaux

A big comeback deserved a big finish, and Dylan Burdeaux was there to supply it.

The freshman left fielder jacked a two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday to give Southern Miss a 10-9 victory over Texas-San Antonio.

Southern Miss (12-12, 4-2 Conference USA) won its second consecutive league series, and for the fifth time in seven games overall. It rallied from a six-run deficit behind home runs by Connor Barron and Mason Robbins, and then Burdeaux’s game-winner.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

Burdeaux hit Southern Miss’ first walk-off home run since 2011.

Barron finished the game 3-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored, Robbins was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored, and Nick Dawson had three hits and scored twice.

R.J. Perucki was 3-for-5 with three RBIs for UTSA (16-8, 3-3). Perucki drove in two runs with a base hit in the top of the fourth as the Road Runners scored five runs to take an 8-2 lead.

Southern Miss began its comeback with Robbins’ solo homer and an RBI single by Austin Roussel in the bottom of the inning. It got two more runs in the seventh inning, then to within 9-8 on Barron’s two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth.

In the ninth, Robbins reached on a one-out error. Two batters later, Burdeaux hit the second pitch he saw over the left field fence to give the Golden Eagles the win.

Luke Lowery (1-0) got two outs in the top of the ninth to earn the win for USM. He was the last link in a solid bullpen performance that kept the team in the game. Six relievers combined to hold UTSA to two runs on three hits over the last 5 1/3 innings after starter Cameron Giannini was roughed up for seven runs.

Ole Miss 8, Missouri 3

Ole Miss (21-4, 4-2 SEC) batted around and scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally past Missouri (11-12, 1-5) and earn a series sweep.

Sikes Orvis had an RBI single and Dalton Dulin followed with a two-run single to key the winning rally. Austin Anderson finished 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs scored.

Wyatt Short (3-0) pitched the last 1 2/3 innings for the win. He entered the game with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the eighth, but escaped the jam with a strikeout and ground out to keep the Rebels’ deficit at 3-2. Ole Miss then exploded for the six runs in the bottom half of the inning.

“There are certain times in the game when you think there are momentum shifts,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “With bases loaded and one out, Wyatt (Short) comes in and gets a strikeout and ground ball, and we were able to keep the difference at one. It makes it so much harder, when the visiting has to get six outs. Then, of course, (Will) Jamison leads off with a big single. That was a huge inning for us.”

LSU 2, Georgia 2

LSU (20-4-1, 3-2-1 SEC) and Georgia (14-10-1, 1-4-1) played to a 13-inning tie Sunday in Baton Rouge. The game was halted so Georgia could catch its flight home. By SEC rules, no inning is allowed to start after 3:45 p.m. local time in a Sunday game.

It was the first tie for both teams since 2008 when, coincidentally, they played to a 10-10 tie in Baton Rouge.

LSU left runners on base in five of the last six innings.