HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss might have found another quality arm as it creeps closer to the Conference USA regular-season championship.

Colt Smith allowed one unearned run in six innings for his second consecutive quality start, and the Golden Eagles beat UAB 5-2 Friday at Pete Taylor Park.

Smith scattered four hits and didn’t walk a batter while striking out four in his second career start. Stevie Powers allowed one run over the last three innings for his second save of the season.

Smith (5-0) pitched seven shutout innings last week in his Friday night debut.

“I’m just thankful to be getting an opportunity out there to show them what I’ve got,” Smith said. “I just go out there and try and throw strikes and let the defense work. That’s all I’m trying to do.”

Southern Miss (38-12, 20-5 Conference USA) is three games ahead of Old Dominion (33-15, 16-8) for first place in Conference USA and the No. 1 seed in the league tournament.

Old Dominion was rained out at home Friday against Florida International. Those teams will play a doubleheader Saturday.

Southern Miss needs a combination of four wins and four losses by Old Dominion to clinch the regular season title.

Southern Miss had 10 hits in Friday’s game with UAB (23-27, 8-17), and also drew nine walks.
LeeMarcus Boyd, Taylor Braley and Mason Irby had two hits apiece for Southern Miss. Daniel Keating drove in two runs, and Dylan Burdeaux scored two.

The Golden Eagles, however, left 16 runners on base.

“We talked about leaving 16 guys on, but that being said, even though we didn’t cash in on a lot of those runners, we ran the pitch count up on (UAB starting pitcher Thomas Lowery),” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “It was a good team win.”