Here’s how everything went so wrong for Southern Miss in its own regional
Southern Miss won a double conference title, extended its NCAA-leading 40-win-season streak and entered the postseason with the highest national seed the program has ever attained.
Yet the hosts of the Hattiesburg Regional were one of the first teams in the field of 64 to be eliminated from the tournament after two late-game collapses at Pete Taylor Park.
On the surface, the two losses played out in two very different ways. The offense struggled to string together hits in a deflating 7-4 loss to four-seed Little Rock on Friday, while the Golden Eagles’ vaunted pitching was shelled throughout a 15-11 elimination loss to Virginia Saturday.
But both games had similar stories play out in critical moments that proved detrimental.
Black hole in the lineup
A lingering issue plaguing USM throughout the season didn’t magically heal when the games mattered most. The bottom of the lineup was horribly ineffective.
Batters 7-9 combined to hit 3-for-24 during the weekend for an abysmal .125 batting average. Tucker Stockman provided the lone break of light from the eight hole.
Southern Miss’ defensively stout catcher has struggled with consistency, but hasn’t been untimely. Stockman provided all three hits produced by the bottom third of the order, drove in five runs and hit the game-tying two-run, two-out double in an eighth inning rally against Virginia.
But Ben Higdon would bat 0-6 in the seven spot and three different hitters would combine to go hitless in nine at bats from the nine hole.
The matter was made worse when leadoff batter Seth Smith appeared to suffer a lower body injury midway through Saturday’s game.
Ty Long took his place and went 0-3 the remainder of the contest.
The black hole portion of the order seem to come up at inopportune times. Down three runs Saturday, Stockman, Gray Eubanks and Long went down 1-2-3 in a trio of uncompetitive at bats in the seventh frame.
Eubanks and Long opened the bottom of the ninth with two outs in just three pitches.
Pressers revealed pitching battle lost
Both the Trojans and Cavaliers seemed to get a hold of one of the top pitching staffs in the country at just the right times.
The postgame press conference revealed why.
Camden Clark and Colby Allen tag-teamed the regional opener and together had held Little Rock to three runs through eight innings.
But things unraveled in the last frame.
Allen allowed a single and a double around the first out of the final inning and then allowed the tying run to score via wild pitch.
With multiple pitchers tossing in the bullpen, Ostrander paid Allen a visit. After a brief conversation, the ball stayed in Allen’s hand.
“At that point, he’s our guy,” Ostrander said about the moment in the postgame presser. “He’s human, he’s not going to be perfect all the time. Credit (Little Rock) with the swings, too.”
The next batter, Nolan Freund, hit a go-ahead RBI single.
Blake Simpson was the next benefactor to Ostrander’s decision to leave Allen on the mound, and he revealed exactly what the Trojans began picking up.
“Colby (Allen) was good, he was throwing a lot of cutters so we just sat on that, and it worked out,” Simpson said.
Simpson would break open the game with a two-run home run.
A similar ballad played out in Saturday’s 10th inning. Thomas Crabtree had chewed through 2.1 clean innings and Ostrander kept him on the mound to start the extra inning with Josh Och and Camden Sunstrom ready and waiting.
AJ Gracia barrelled up Crabtree for a leadoff double and Joe Tiroly turned an 0-2 count into a free base. As it turned out, UVA had a plan and was glad to see Crabtree’s return.
“I think at some point, you have to hunt that split-finger,” UVA coach Chris Pollard said after the game. “It’s a really, really good pitch. Sometimes when a guy has a really elite breaking ball or a really elite off-speed pitch, you just got to go up there and say ‘I’m going to sell out and try to hit that pitch.’”
Crabtree was pulled for Sunstrom, who induced a double play but also walked a batter, gave up a two-run single and a solo home run.
The Golden Eagles would allow eight runs between the last innings of each game.
The two losses represent the first time USM has lost the first games of a regional since 2011 in Atlanta and the first time it’s done so as the host.
