SLU ends Southern Miss’ win streak
Published 9:23 am Thursday, March 10, 2016
HATTIESBURG — One night after rallying late to beat Southeastern Louisiana on the road, Southern Miss saw the Lions return the favor Wednesday night.
Southeastern Louisiana scored four runs — three unearned — over the final three innings to get past the Golden Eagles 4-2.
Southern Miss (11-3), which scored five runs in the eighth and ninth innings to knock off the Lions 9-7 Tuesday in Hammond, La., saw a 15-game regular-season winning streak in Hattiesburg snapped with its first home loss this season.
Southern Miss also had a four-game overall winning streak come to an end.
“Honestly, just what they did (Tuesday) night is what we did (Wednesday),” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said of two errors and three walks that contributed to the Golden Eagles’ downfall. “We’ve had a pretty good run here, but this was an opportunity that we missed on. We didn’t do enough to win this ballgame.”
Southern Miss left 10 runners on base Wednesday, including eight in scoring position. It did score twice in the fifth inning, on an RBI single by Chuckie Robinson and a sacrifice fly by Hunter Slater, but didn’t put a runner on base in either the sixth or seventh innings.
Slater’s sacrifice fly scored Taylor Braley to make it 2-0, but Robinson was doubled up on a baserunning gaffe, running on contact and unable to get back to first base in time.
In the top of the seventh, SLU used two walks and an error to load the bases, and then tied the game at 2 on a single by Jacob Seward.
“We’ve been playing pretty good baseball, but we just didn’t get it done,” Berry said. “We just didn’t do enough offensively. We didn’t get that big hit.”
Southeastern Louisiana (7-6) took the lead in the eighth when Jameson Fisher led off with a walk, went to third on a throwing error, and scored on a ground out by Daniel Midyett.
A solo home run in the ninth by Julian Service put the Lions ahead 4-2.
Southern Miss left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning and went down in order in the ninth.
Ole Miss 6, Southeast Missouri 4
Will Golsan’s two-run homer tied the game in the seventh inning, and Holt Perdzock delivered a pinch-hit, two-RBI single to lead Ole Miss (12-1) to a comeback victory over Southeast Missouri (6-7).
Ole Miss won its seventh consecutive game and finished a two-game sweep of the midweek seriess.
Golsan finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while Ryan Olenek and J.B. Woodman had two hits apiece.
Andy Pagnozzi allowed one run in four innings for the Rebels. Relievers Will Stokes and Wyatt Short held Southeast Missouri scoreless over the last three innings.
In all, five Ole Miss pitchers combined to scatter five hits. They walked three batters and struck out 10.
Garrett Gandolfo went 2-for-4 with a run scored for Southeast Missouri. Brian Lees drove in two runs.
“I thought we had some good swings early on, we just didn’t have things falling in. You have to give credit to their defense just making play after play,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “Fortunately, we pitched well.”