College Baseball Roundup: Southern Miss finishes regular season with a win; Ole Miss, State with losses

Published 7:42 pm Saturday, May 18, 2024

HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss closed down The Pete for the season, but had the look of a team with a lot of baseball still to play.

Slade Wilks hit a go-ahead double in the fifth inning, Matthew Russo homered, and Kros Silvey threw four scoreless innings out of the bullpen as Southern Miss beat Texas State 5-3 on Saturday.

Southern Miss (37-18, 20-10 Sun Belt Conference) won its third consecutive weekend series and will head into the Sun Belt tournament as the No. 2 seed. The conference tournament begins Tuesday in Montgomery, Alabama.

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Russo, Ozzie Pratt and Gabe Broadus had two hits apiece for the Golden Eagles. Pratt drove in two runs and Russo scored two.

Pratt tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning with an RBI single, then scored the go-ahead run on Wilks’ double. Pratt added an RBI double of his own in the seventh inning, and Russo’s solo homer in the eighth made it 5-2.

Silvey (4-5) had three strikeouts in four innings of relief, and allowed one hit and one walk to earn the win. Colby Allen worked into and out of a jam in the ninth to earn his sixth save.

LSU 9, Ole Miss 3
Tommy White hit two home runs — including a grand slam that keyed a six-run rally in the fourth inning — and LSU (36-20, 13-17 Southeastern Conference) completed a three-game sweep of Ole Miss (27-28, 11-9).

White homered for the second game in a row, and finished with five RBIs. His grand slam put the Tigers ahead 8-0, and he added a solo shot in the sixth inning.

Hayden Travinski was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for LSU, while Michael Braswell III was 2-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored.

Ethan Groff had two hits and scored a run for Ole Miss, which will be the No. 12 seed for the SEC Tournament when it begins Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama.

Missouri 4, Mississippi State 3
Jackson Lovich’s two-run home run in the seventh inning and a dominant relief effort by Brock Lucas helped Missouri close out its 2024 season with a come-from-behind victory over No. 18 Mississippi State.

Mississippi State (36-19, 17-13 SEC) scored twice in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead, with one run coming in on a double by Bryce Chance. After Missouri (23-32, 9-21) battled back to tie it, the Bulldogs went in front again on Joe Powell’s solo home run in the sixth inning.

Lovich then belted a two-run homer in the top of the seventh and Lucas closed it out with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Lucas had four strikeouts.

Chance and Logan Kohler had three hits apiece for Mississippi State, while Amani Larry reached base three times and scored a run.

Missouri did not qualify for the SEC Tournament and finished its season with the win. Mississippi State will be either the No. 5 or 6 seed for the tournament and play Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama.

West Florida 17, Delta State 6
Jadon Fryman went 4-for-6 with a home run and seven RBIs, Darrien McDowell also homered and drove in three runs, and West Florida ended Delta State’s season in an elimination game at the NCAA Division II South Regional on Saturday.

The top three batters in West Florida’s lineup — Trent Jeffcoat, McDowell and Fryman – went 9-for-17 with 12 RBIs and seven runs scored.

Former St. Aloysius star Wes Warnock was 2-for-5 and scored a run for Delta State (33-24). Dylan Coleman was 4-for-4 with a solo home and scored three runs, and Braiden Jones hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning.