TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A big sixth inning got Southern Miss off to a great start in the NCAA Tournament’s Tallahassee Regional.

Two days later, a big sixth inning brought its season to an end.

South Alabama scored six times in the sixth inning Sunday to beat Southern Miss 7-5 in an elimination game of the regional.

Southern Miss (41-20) lost two consecutive games in the regional after beating South Alabama (42-21) in the opening game. USM scored 11 runs in the sixth inning of that one to win 14-2, but was undone by the same sixth-inning magic in the rematch.

South Alabama advanced to face Florida State for the regional title. South Alabama needs to win twice to advance to the super regional round. The teams played Sunday night, and if South Alabama wins they’ll play again Monday.

Sunday’s loss ended Southern Miss’ first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.

“I’m so proud of our club and how we competed all year long,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “We won the (Conference USA Tournament), got back to a regional, where we belong. We’ve been absent four years and these guys worked hard to get back to where we are.”

South Alabama trailed 4-0 going into the sixth before they rallied. Cole Billingsley had the go-ahead hit with a two out, two-run single.

The Jaguars sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning. Four of them walked, including two with the bases loaded.

Southern Miss used six pitchers in the game, who issued a total of nine walks and hit two batters.

The Golden Eagles ran out of healthy pitching after the opening game of the regional, and Berry said  a handful of pitchers who took the mound this weekend weren’t close to 100 percent.

“You’ve got Nick Sandlin out there pitching, he can’t even look right or left. His neck is locked up,” Berry said. “We dealt with that the last two weeks of the regular season and he re-injured it in the (Conference USA) championship in the dog pile. I knew when he walked the first two guys, that’s not Nick. I knew we were in trouble with him right there. Hats off to him and what he was trying to do and gut that thing out. He gave us everything he could. Yeah, he were running thin (on pitching options).”

Ryne Long got the win in long relief for South Alabama. The senior right-hander (4-0) from Moss Point allowed two runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Long returned to the mound after a two-hour rain delay in the fifth inning and retired 12 consecutive batters. The string was broken with a leadoff double by Nick Dawson in the ninth inning, and Long left after Dawson scored on another double by Jake Sandlin that cut the Jaguars’ lead to 7-5.

South Alabama coach Mark Calvi joked that Long downed four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as he waited for his chance to retake the mound in the fifth with men on first and second and none out.

“I just tried to stay loose,” Long said. “It was longer than we thought. To begin with, they told us 30 minutes. It ended up being almost two hours. Once the delay got there, I took it as I was starting a game. It was a whole new game and I tried to have a different mindset because I wasn’t very good before the delay. I just tried to go out there, fill up the zone and make things happen for the guys. I knew we weren’t going to stop and our hitters bailed us out today.”

Dawson had three hits, Jake Sandlin homered and Daniel Keating added two hits with two RBIs for Southern Miss. Jake Winston (7-2) got the loss, allowing three runs and two hits in one-third of an inning.

Southern Miss scored in four of the first five innings, but also left seven runners on base during that span.