Southern Miss wrapped up its series with Little Rock. Here’s where things stand.

With approximately a quarter of the 2020 baseball season in the books, the results for Southern Miss have been mostly positive.

But there have been a few glitches along the way, and one of those came on Sunday, in the third game of a three-game series against Little Rock at Pete Taylor Park.

The Golden Eagles ran into a pitching buzz saw in Trojans’ ace Aaron Funk, who handcuffed USM for most of the afternoon, carrying Little Rock to a 5-1 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,776 on a warm early spring afternoon.

Southern Miss, which won the first two games of the series on Friday and Saturday, dropped to 11-4 overall, while the Trojans improved to 9-8.

“Funk had some serious funk that he was throwing on us,” said Golden Eagle coach Scott Berry. “We knew going in that he was going to be a tough matchup for us. They played a very clean game; we did too, but we just didn’t do anything offensively.”

Funk (2-0), a junior right-hander, retired the first 11 batters he faced and did not allow a hit until Dustin Dickerson’s one-out double in the bottom of the fifth inning that resulted in the Golden Eagles’ only run of the game.

“He had really good fastball command,” said Dickerson, a freshman from West Jones. “He put it on both sides of the plate, and he could get a curveball over the plate any time he wanted. His change-up was also working, and he just kept us off-balance.”

Funk went the distance, allowing five hits. He struck out nine and walked just one, to USM senior Matthew Guidry in the fourth. That kept Guidry’s streak of games reaching base to 71. Guidry also had a single in the ninth.

“He just had a really good mix of that fastball and change-up, and he was able to drop that curveball in there,” said Berry. “But he really located that fastball well. It had tremendous tilt to it, and he used both sides of the plate, predominantly away.”

Freshman left-hander Chandler Best (0-2) had a solid outing as the Golden Eagle starter, but he made a couple of mistakes that hurt him.

The first came in the top of the first with one out, when Little Rock catcher Kale Emshoff smacked a 3-2 pitch over the fence in left field for a home run.

“(Best) was better today, but he’s got to stay out of those three-ball counts,” said Berry. “He’s giving guys too good a look.

“If you look at Funk, he was 67 pitches through five innings, so we didn’t get a lot of looks at him, because he filled the zone up. And that’s what Chandler’s going to have to learn to do. As he develops, he’s going to learn how to get batters out earlier in the count.”

The Trojans made it 2-0 in the third after two were out. USM elected to intentionally walk Emshoff, and Houston Parker made the Golden Eagles pay for that decision with a double down the rightfield line that allowed Emshoff to score all the way from first base.

The third time Emshoff came to bat it was against senior right-hander Tyler Spring, who came on to get the Golden Eagles out of a jam in the fifth inning after the Trojans opened the inning with back-to-back singles.

Spring, who transferred to Southern Miss from Mississippi State, struck out Emshoff looking, conceded a run-scoring sacrifice fly and got out of the inning when Golden Eagle catcher Andrew Stanley threw out a runner trying to steal second base.

“We were down, so I knew I needed to go out and give us a chance,” said Spring. “I think my confidence is better, which has helped me come right out and go after hitters.”

After Dickerson broke up Funk’s no-hitter, junior Gabe Montenegro singled up the middle, and Berry, in the third base coach’s box, waved Dickerson home. That decision paid off as the throw from center field was off-line, allowing the run to score.

But the Golden Eagles were unable to do anything else with Funk, and the Trojans finally broke through against Spring in the eighth, his fourth inning of work.

Parker led off with a home run over the center field fence, and after the Trojans got a one-out single, senior lefty Sean Tweedy took over on the mound. Tweedy surrendered a double, and an RBI sacrifice fly before getting out of the inning with a strikeout.

Senior right-hander Hunter Stanley worked an uneventful ninth inning to complete a mostly clean day for Southern Miss relievers.

So far, the bullpen has been a big part of the Golden Eagles’ success. USM relievers are 6-1 for the season, with 87 strikeouts against 19 walks, and have converted two of three save opportunities.

“(The bullpen) has been going great,” said Spring, who went 3 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, striking out five and walking just one. “The coaches have talked about maybe getting me some starts, but I’m going to do whatever they feel best helps the team win.”

Sunday’s game was the last non-conference weekend game of the season, as the Golden Eagles open Conference USA play next weekend against FIU at home, following a game Tuesday against Troy at Montgomery, Alabama.

“We’re still young, but we’re growing,” said Dickerson, who is hitting .314 out of the ninth spot in the Golden Eagle batting order. “I think slowing the game down is a huge thing, and just trying not to press, but to relax at the plate has been big for me.”

Berry said he hadn’t thought about a starter for Tuesday, but whoever he sends out against Troy will face a challenge.

“We’re going to digest this weekend, then come back Monday and make a decision,” said Berry. “Troy’s a good, veteran ball club, and they’ve hit a bunch of home runs this season. We feel like that’s going to be a real good test for us going into conference play.”

Tuesday’s game at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.