BILOXI — Conference USA’s Pitcher of the Year is an awfully tough act to follow.

But Southern Miss Stevie Powers has more than held his own as the second man in the Golden Eagles’ rotation behind Nick Sandlin, and the junior left-hander came up big Friday afternoon in the Conference USA tournament.

Powers, who had not pitched since May 5 because of tightness in his left forearm, allowed two runs on four hits over seven innings and the Golden Eagles never trailed in a 5-3 victory over UTSA at MGM Park.

“We’ve won 41 games because we’ve done a lot of things right,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “(Friday), we did a lot of things right and we beat a really good UTSA team who has been playing very good here at the end of the year.”

Powers, who has spent the bulk of the season in the weekend rotation, said Sandlin’s four-hit, 2-0 gem Thursday against UAB gave the Golden Eagles a huge boost.

“Coming after Nick Sandlin, that’s tough to follow up,” Powers said with a smile. “It’s been a tough job all year for me. But (Sandlin) came out and set the tone for us (Thursday), and I just wanted to come out and emulate him and put ourselves in a good position for (Saturday).”

With the win, Golden Eagles (41-15) moved on to the semifinals. They’ll take on either Charlotte or UTSA at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

If USM wins that game, it will play for the championship Sunday at 1 p.m. It has reached the title game each of the last two seasons.

“We’re sitting pretty,” said USM third baseman Luke Reynolds, who turned a game-ending double play with a whirling tag on a runner coming into third, before righting himself for a strong throw to first. “We’ve just got to keep playing hard and keep playing together, and we can win this.”

Matt Wallner drove in two runs with a first-inning single before skying his 14th home run of the season in the third inning to give the top-seeded Golden Eagles a three-run cushion.

UTSA (32-22) fought back, however. Powers, who had retired the first 10 batters he faced, hit left fielder Ryan Stacy with a pitch and first baseman Tony Beam hit his sixth home run of the season to get UTSA within 3-2 in the fourth inning.

USM shortstop LeeMarcus Boyd’s single in the sixth inning bumped the lead back to 4-2, but the Roadrunners kept the pressure on until the last out.

In the ninth, Driver hit right fielder Dylan Rock and gave up a one-out single to Moon. Driver then got shortstop Joshua Lamb to ground to Reynolds that turned into the game-ending double play.

“We missed some opportunities to tie the game or possibly even win the game there at the end,” UTSA coach Jason Marshall said. “But they’re Southern Miss. It’s going to take a lot to win. Hopefully, we can win another game and come back and take another shot at them.”

Wallner finished the game 2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored for Southern Miss, and Hunter Slater had three hits. Reynolds went 1-for-4 with a double, RBI and a run scored.

Driver allowed one run over the last two innings to earn his first save of the season.

Chris Estrada and Garrett Moon had two hits apiece for UTSA. Steven Dressler took the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits, in five innings of work.