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HATTIESBURG - Miss. – The third-seeded University of South Alabama baseball team fell to No. 1 Southern Mississippi and No. 2 Mississippi State in a pair of Sunday games to be eliminated from the NCAA Hattiesburg (Miss.) Regional at Pete Taylor Park.

USA (40-21) fell to USM 8-3 in a winner's bracket contest earlier in the day before falling to MSU 7-3 in an elimination contest Sunday evening. South Alabama closed its season with 40 wins, which marks it second straight year with 40-plus wins.

No. 1 Southern Miss 8,  No. 3 South Alabama 3
USM used a four-run fifth inning to defeat the third-seeded Jaguars 8-3 in Sunday's winner's bracket contest to advance to Sunday's regional final.

Golden Eagle right-hander Taylor Braley (7-2) allowed three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 5 2/3 innings pitched to earn the win. Jaguar right-hander Tyler Carr (7-2) allowed three runs on three hits with a pair of walks in three innings pitched in the loss.

Southern Miss (50-14) jumped out to a one-run lead in the top of the first inning. Dylan Burdeaux reached on a hit by pitch to lead off the game, and moved to third on a double to right field by Mason Irby. Braley followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Burdeaux with the game's first run. 

South Alabama answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first for a one-run advantage. Dylan Hardy led off the inning with a single to right field before Colton Thomas lifted a 3-1 pitch from Braley over the center field wall for a 2-1 Jaguar lead. 

The Golden Eagles responded with two runs in the top of the third to take a one-run lead. Irby singled to right field with one out in the top of the third, and Braley followed with a walk. Matt Wallner then delivered an RBI single into shallow center field to score Irby from second and knot the score at 2-2. A wild pitch from Carr allowed both runners to move into scoring position before Hunter Slater delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Braley for a 3-2 USM lead.

Southern Miss rallied for four runs with two outs in the top of the fifth to take a five-run lead. Braley doubled the USM lead on a two-out solo home run to left-center field. Wallner and Slater drew consecutive walks before Tracey Hadley delivered a three-run home run to left-center field to extend the Golden Eagle lead to 7-2.

USA answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut its deficit to four. Hunter Stokes reached on a one-out walk, and moved to third on a single to right-center field by Carter Perkins. Hardy delivered a two-out RBI single through the left side of the infield later in the inning to score Stokes and cut the USM lead to 7-3. Thomas followed with a walk to load the bases for Donovan, but USM left-hander Stevie Powers escaped the jam with an inning-ending groundout to second and preserve a four-run Golden Eagle lead.

USM added the game's final run of the game in the top of the seventh. Braley doubled to left-center field to lead off the inning, and scored one batter later on an RBI single back up the middle by Wallner.

Braley went 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI and three runs scored to lead the Golden Eagles at the plate. Hardy finished 3-for-5 with one RBI and one run scored to lead the Jaguars offensively, while Brendan Donovan added three hits. 

"First of all congratulations to a very talented Southern Miss team – probably the most complete team that we've played all year long and to play at a very high level, so congratulations to them," USA head coach Mark Calvi said. "We had a few too many walks in there, we had some hits by pitches. We outhit them and we hit some balls hard, and we left 15 on base – their pitchers had a hand in that, like I said they have a lot of pieces over there in the Southern Miss dugout. You know we've done a great job of getting that big hit and getting men on and getting that big hit, but we just didn't. We we were in position, we just didn't get that big hit today. We have a lot of faith in Tyler Carr running him up here. I just didn't think he had his best stuff, but against a very good hitting team – one of the best hitting teams we've faced all year long, if not the best. 

"You just can't get behind on the count, you can't give free passes and you can't get predictable in counts. I thought Southern Miss did a very nice job offensively. Like I said, we outhit them, but they hit a three-run home run, they had two home runs in there, we had one early on; a couple times we got into one. But you just can't give them much, and you know they're going to earn some things on you; if you give them too much you're in trouble. We gave a little too much today, and what they earned they just opened the gap up. You know we scored two runs early and we only pushed one across after that. Our guys fought, scratched, clawed and competed like crazy, we just couldn't get that big hit that we've been used to getting for pretty much the last 30 games or so. But credit to Southern Miss, outstanding job by them."

No. 2 Mississippi State 7,  No. 3 South Alabama 3
No. 2 Mississippi State scored five runs in the third inning en route to a 7-3 win over No. 3 South Alabama in an elimination contest at the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional.

MSU right-hander Denver McQuary (3-3) allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts and five walks in five innings pitched in the win. Jaguar left-hander Andy Arguelles (3-3) allowed five runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk in 2 2/3 innings pitched in the loss.

USA took a one-run lead in the bottom of the second inning on a leadoff solo home run to left-center field by Davis on a 3-2 pitch from MSU right-hander Denver McQuary. 

MSU answered with five runs in the top of the third for a four-run advantage. Hunter Vansau reached on an infield single to second to lead off the inning, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Lovelady. Hunter Stovall delivered a two-out, two-run home run to left field later in the frame to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. Brent Rooker followed with a walk, and moved to third on a single back up the middle by Ryan Gridley. Cody Brown then delivered a three-run home run to right-center field to extend the Bulldog lead to 5-1.

The Jaguars responded with a run in the bottom of the fourth when Davis launched an 0-1 pitch from McQuary over the right field wall for a leadoff solo home run to cut the MSU lead to 5-2. 

The Bulldogs added a run in the top of the eighth to push its advantage to four. Gridley led off the inning with a double to left field, and Brown followed with a walk. A sacrifice bunt by Jake Mangum advanced both runners into scoring position with one out. Elijah MacNamee reached on a hit by pitch to load the bases with one out for Vansau, who reached on an RBI fielder's choice to second that allowed Gridley to score and extend the MSU lead to 6-2.

South Alabama answered with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to cut the Bulldog lead in half. Donovan drew a leadoff walk, and Swaggerty followed with a hit by pitch. Russo delivered a one-out RBI single to right-center field later in the inning to score Donovan and cut the MSU lead to 6-3.

Mississippi State added the game's final run on a leadoff solo home run to left field by Harrison Bragg in the top of the ninth inning.

Davis went 2-for-3 with two home runs, two RBI and two runs scored to lead the Jaguars at the plate, and Russo added two hits and one RBI. Brown finished 3-for-4 with a home run, three RBI and one run scored to lead the Bulldogs offensively.

"It certainly isn't any fun congratulating two different teams, on the same day, for beating you but that's what happened today," Calvi said. "Our guys played extremely hard. Mississippi State just outplayed us a little bit tonight. They got a few more hits and scored a few more runs; they played a complete game. They did some of the smaller things just a little bit better than we did tonight. Congratulations to them and Southern Miss in the championship game tomorrow. I want to thank Southern Miss for a great tournament and all the folks at the NCAA. With all the rain and everything like that, I know it wasn't easy but what an outstanding job. Their hospitality and professionalism is off the charts. So thank you to everyone involved in this tournament.

"It's hard to say goodbye to some kids, especially your seniors. We might have a younger guy go in the draft, but this is never easy. Other sports, football season ends and you have Christmas and you see a lot of your guys because they're around. In college baseball the season is over, these guys have been done with school for almost a month already, and if you're fortunate enough you keep playing a month after school and they disperse. You lose your seniors and you don't see them around because they've graduated already. That's the hard part for me. That's harder for me than sitting up here after a loss, knowing we're not going to have some really special kids back next year. Some of those guys are the heart and soul of our team. Some of them played and some of them did not. Some of them played sparingly, but for the most part they were the backbone of our club. Our younger guys here, two of them here, are sophomores. They have some great examples from some of our older players. That's the culture in our program and that's the culture in our locker room. Its selflessness, toughness, win no matter what, play hard no matter what and that's what our guys did. Win or lose, our guys played hard no matter what. It stings when you lose. It hurts, but when you lose with the right guys you can handle it; you move on. I won't lose much sleep tonight. I lost with the right guys on the mound, at the plate, behind the plate, in the field, in the dugout and we lost a regional with the right guys. I can live with that and I'm proud of my guys, everything they've accomplished this year. We have enough guys back, almost our whole team back next year. I know they'll remember this feeling. We've got to keep pushing to get over the hump and get to the next level, win and regional and get to a super. We'll go from there. We can do it. Out players know it, our coaches know it and that'll be our goal next year.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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