Southern Miss finishes sweep of UTSA

Published 11:55 pm Friday, May 19, 2017

SAN ANTONIO — Southern Miss is hardly cruising into the postseason.

The Golden Eagles finished the regular season Friday by scoring 30 runs and racking up 33 hits as they swept a doubleheader from Texas-San Antonio, 15-1 and 15-9.

Southern Miss (44-12, 25-5 Conference USA) won its 14th consecutive game and will be the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Tournament that begins Wednesday at MGM Park in Biloxi.

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Southern Miss hit eight home runs in Friday’s doubleheader, and blew open both games with big rallies in the later innings.

In the first game, the Golden Eagles scored three runs in the eighth inning and seven in the ninth to run away with a 15-1 victory.

Dylan Burdeaux went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Bryant Bowen had two hits, four RBIs and two runs scored.

Burdeaux, Bowen, Taylor Braley and Matt Wallner all homered.

Game two followed a similar pattern.

Hunter Slater drew a bases-loaded walk to give Southern Miss a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning, and the floodgates opened.

Braley followed the walk with a grand slam, and Wallner made it back-to-back home runs to push the lead to 11-5 in a span of three batters.

Matthew Guidry added another solo home run, and Burdeaux and Mason Irby had RBI singles later in the inning as the Golden Eagles scored nine times to take a 15-5 lead.

Bryan Arias hit a solo home run in the eighth inning as UTSA (28-26, 15-15) got a few runs back, but it never came close to getting back in the game.

Arias finished the game 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored, George Mason was 4-for-4 with two RBIs, and Jesse Baker homered.

Burdeaux was 5-for-6 with two RBIs and three runs scored for Southern Miss, and Irby had three hits. Slater and Braley scored three times each.

Guidry was 3-for-5 with four RBIs.