Wild pitch lifts FIU over USM

Published 10:15 am Friday, May 20, 2016

MIAMI — One wild pitch has turned the Conference USA championship race into a wild scramble to the finish.

Zack Soria scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning as Florida International beat Southern Miss 6-5 Thursday night.

Florida International (26-27, 13-15 C-USA) clinched a spot in next week’s C-USA Tournament, and also threw the top half of the standings into a tizzy.

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Four teams — Southern Miss (36-16, 20-8), Marshall (31-18, 20-8), Rice (32-18, 19-8) and Florida Atlantic (35-15, 19-8) are now within a half-game of the lead with two left in the regular season.

Southern Miss rallied from a 4-0 deficit Thursday to tie the game on Chase Scott’s sacrifice fly in the seventh inning. It took the lead in the eighth on Nick Dawson’s RBI double, but FIU tied it again in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out home run by Irving Lopez.

The score stayed tied at 5 until the bottom of the 10th.

Soria led off with a triple, and Southern Miss closer Nick Sandlin intentionally walked Lopez and Rey Perez to load the bases and set up a force at home plate.

It never came to that, though. On a 1-1 count, Sandlin threw a wild pitch that brought in Soria with the winning run.

Southern Miss lost for just the second time in its last eight games. Dylan Burdeaux, Chuckie Robinson and Jake Sandlin had two hits apiece for the Golden Eagles.

For Florida International, Lopez went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Soria had two hits and scored three times, and Nick Day drove in two runs.

Williams Durruthy (2-3) pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win.