McCarty comes out dealing as Southern Miss rolls Northeastern

Southern Miss ace left-hander Kirk McCarty appeared in midseason form in his first start of 2017.

The junior tossed seven scoreless innings, helping the Golden Eagles cruise to a 14-1 win and a 2-0 series lead over Northeastern Saturday at Pete Taylor Park. McCarty allowed two hits, struck out six and walked only one batter on 74 pitches.

“We played a very good baseball game all the way around and it started with him on the mound with seven innings of two-hit baseball,” USM head coach Scott Berry said. “They never had a chance to get any kind of momentum or rhythm to get back in the game offensively. We scored every inning and if you put those two things together it's hard to lose.”

McCarty, who finished 8-1 and was named All-Conference USA last season, didn't issue his first walk until the fifth inning during an efficient outing. Of McCarty's 74 pitches, 49 were for strikes.

“I had command of a lot of pitches, but the big thing was my changeup came on in the second and third innings,” McCarty. “Early on, I missed a couple. I fell behind hitters and had to go to different stuff.

“I forced it early. When it came, it was good.”

The Southern Miss hitters again had no problem getting to the Northeastern pitching stuff after a 9-4 win in the season opener on Friday.

Every USM player who had at least one at-bat on Saturday reached base at least once. Northeastern pitchers combined to walk nine batters and hit six more.

Freshman center fielder Matt Wallner had a nice day at the plate, going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.

Berry didn't hesitate to put Wallner, who bats from left side, back in the lineup against Northeastern's left-handed starter Andrew Misaiszek.

“That's something I worked on in the fall quite a bit,” Wallner said of facing lefties. “I did well for the most part today.”

Junior third baseman Taylor Braley, who homered twice in Friday's opener, again showed up strong in the batter's box. He went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, including a two-run double down the left field line to help give the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead after one inning.

Braley already has seven RBIs through two games.

After USM pounded out three homers on Friday, redshirt freshman Bryant Bowen got his first start at catcher and hit a solo homer with two outs in the bottom of the third.

Bowen gave first-year sophomore Cole Donaldson a day off behind the plate after he started Friday's game. After Chuckie Robinson started nearly ever game at catcher last season, USM should have a healthy rotation there, including junior college transfer Jake Viaene.

“That's huge to save Cole's legs,” McCarty said. “Not that we downgrade at all with Bowen, he caught a heck of a game. That's his first start as a redshirt freshman. I had a bet with the guys that he'd hit a home run in his first at-bat. He made me lose that, but he hit in his second at-bat. We have great catchers.”

Freshman right-hander Cody Carroll will get the start for USM at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Northeastern will counter with its own right-hander, Kyle Murphy.

Coast connection

Freshman right-hander Alex Nelms, a Gulfport product, made his first career outing on Saturday for Southern Miss when he entered the game in the eighth inning.

Nelms' first pitch was a solo home run by pinch hitter Nick Fanneron, but he settled down to retire three of the next four batters he faced.

Senior Tracy Hadley, a former Pascagoula standout, got the start at second base and shifted over to shortstop later in the game. He finished 2-for-5 with one RBI.

Gulfport's Daniel Keating started at designated hitter for the second consecutive game and finished 1-for-3 with one run scored.

This story was originally published February 18, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "McCarty comes out dealing as Southern Miss rolls Northeastern."