HATTIESBURG, Miss. | After a four-hour weather delay, South Alabama took an early lead before falling to Southern Miss 6-4 at Pete Taylor Field on Saturday evening.
Caden Homniok (1-1) suffered the loss in relief of starter
Mitchell Heer, working 2.1 innings and allowing four runs (two earned) on five hits with a pair of strikeouts. Meanwhile, Heer went just 2.0 innings in the start allowing one run on four hits,
South Alabama (23-23, 11-12 SBC) was held to just seven hits by Southern Miss (31-15, 16-7 SBC), all by different players.
Joseph Sullivan and
Diego Altamirano each picked up a hit and were walked once each in the contest, while
Jackson Howard picked up his first extra-base hit and RBI with a two-run double in the first.
The loss marks the first time the Jags have dropped back-to-back games since March 25 against Louisiana.
How It Happened
- (T1) Jackson Howard delivered his first RBI as a Jag with a double off the center field wall with one out to score both Erick Orbeta and Will Turner, South Alabama 2-0.
- (B2) Carson Paetow singled to center to drive in Nick Monistere who reached on a two-out double, South Alabama 2-1.
- (B3) Danny Lynch singled to right before reaching second on a throwing error that allowed Slade Wilks to score. The Golden Eagles added another run on a Monistere single up the middle to score Lynch, Southern Miss 3-2.
- (T4) Joseph Sullivan came across to score from second after a ground ball hit by Tyler Borges was mishandled at third to tie the game, 3-3.
- (B5) Wilks hit a solo home run to right to give the Golden Eagles the lead before Christopher Sargent scored on a Lynch single up the middle, Southern Miss 5-3.
- (T7) Borges scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Orbeta, Southern Miss 5-4.
- (B7) Paetow drove in Reece Ewing from third with a sacrifice fly to add to the lead, Southern Miss 6-4.
Up Next
The two teams meet on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the series with first pitch scheduled for 1 pm.
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
General statement about today …
"We jumped on them for two, unfortunate we had a couple of errors that hurt us. You can't good teams, anyone, free bases. I thought Mitch's forearm was a little bit tight, so we went to Homniok and he was really good. He battled like crazy but kept his composure. It was unfortunate it happened, but it did. You can see why they are leading the league and can win it this year; they take advantage of mistakes. It's nothing, their pitching is solid, they don't wow in any category, they take advantage of mistakes. They are an older, veteran ballclub that knows what blood in the water smells like. That is the difference between an average team and a team like Southern Miss at this point in the year. Good teams can smell blood in the water, and they don't waste the opportunities. We gave them a big window and they cashed in with two runs in his first inning and that hurt. We had momentum, and sports are all about momentum – how long you can hold it and what you do when you have it. When they get it, they make the most of it, that's what good teams do. That was the difference in the game. We struck out too many times, we have to be better. We have been good this year, but the last two games we haven't been. We have to force them to defense, it's easy to defend a strikeout. We did not play well enough, we played ok, probably to beat 60 percent of the teams in this league but not the upper echelon teams like a Southern Miss. We hung in there, we competed like crazy, I am proud of the effort, we just need to play better."
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