How Southern Miss turned a ‘sense of urgency’ into an important Game 3 win over NSU

Although it was only the third game of the season, Scott Berry said there was, “a sense of urgency,” Monday as his Southern Miss baseball team arrived at Pete Taylor Park to face Northwestern State in the third game of the season-opening series.

After dropping the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader in a generally poor performance, the Golden Eagles came out with renewed purpose in the rubber game of the series, jumping on the Demons in a 10-0 run-rule victory.

Redshirt sophomore Drew Boyd was masterful on the mound and freshman Reed Trimble drove in six runs with a pair of three-run home runs to power the Golden Eagles.

“Game 2, I didn’t like our pace, didn’t like our approach,” said Berry. “That’s like the pregame meeting this morning. The gist of it, was let’s learn from what we didn’t do yesterday and apply it to the game today, and that’s what we did.”

Boyd, a left-hander from Oak Grove, resumed his comeback from 2018 Tommy John surgery, after appearing in four games last season, and he was lights out against the Demons. Boyd struck out nine batters, walked none, allowed just two hits and had a hit batter.

“It felt great get back out there and compete,” said Boyd. “I had fastball command. That was the route we took today, using the fastballs early, then mixing up the slider and change-up.

“I wanted to keep them off-balance with different pitches. When I was able to bury the slider, I could get a swing-and-miss, and the elevated fastball seemed to be working.”

Boyd’s nine punchouts, along with three by reliever Matthew Adams, gave the Golden Eagles 45 strikeouts for the series, a trend that Berry hopes continues.

“That’s pretty impressive,” said Berry. “Real proud of the way our pitching staff came out and dominated on the mound. They threw strikes and didn’t allow many freebies, for the most part. Outside of the one bad inning (Sunday), they handled themselves really well.”

The closest Boyd came to allowing a run was in the fifth inning, when Hilton Brown got a one-out triple, and he was left there when Boyd got a strikeout and a pop-up to end the inning.

By then, the outcome was all but assured, thanks to Trimble’s two bombs. Trimble turned on the first pitch he saw in each at-bat in the second and third innings and sent both over the fence in right-centerfield.

“It was a good day for hitting,” said Trimble. “We all seemed to have really good at-bats. I put two good swings on it, but it wasn’t just me; the whole team put good swings together.

“I was supposed to take on the first one, and I missed (the sign). He threw me a middle-in fastball. The second time, I was looking for something slow and away, off-speed, and trying to work the left side of the field, but he threw something down and in, and I went with it.”

The Golden Eagles only had six hits against four NSU pitchers, but drew 11 walks, including four straight free passes in the seventh inning to bring the game to an early end on the 10-run rule.

“A lot of our troubles with strikeouts was swinging at stuff out of the strike zone, especially in the second game (Sunday),” said Berry.

“What you saw today was our hitters being more patient, laid off that guy. Hitters get themselves out; today we didn’t. We were very patient, and when he did come in the zone, we put some good swings on it.”

The Demons also had two costly errors, both of which led to Golden Eagle runs.

USM jumped ahead with two runs in the bottom of the first. Junior Gabe Montenegro drew a walk to lead off the inning, reached second on a wild pitch, took third on Trimble’s groundout and scored on a single by Christopher Sargent.

Sargent came around to score after a single by sophomore Reese Ewing and a throwing error by NSU starting pitcher Levi David, who threw away a potential double-play ball on a comebacker to the mound.

“That makes a pitcher’s job so easy, just getting that two-run cushion right off the bat,” Boyd said. “That eases the pressure on me. Then they come out in the second inning and tack on more runs, and that’s even less pressure.

“That’s when you’re having fun. All you have to do is just go out and execute.”

David also surrendered two walks to set the table for Trimble in both the second and third innings. It was the first two-homer game for Southern Miss since Matt Guidry did it last year against Valparaiso.

“I try to just put a good swing on the ball,” said Trimble. “My first at-bat, we had a runner on second, nobody out. My goal was to get him over to third, and that’s what happened. Those other at-bats, I got good pitches to pull.”

Adams, a right-hander, came on in the sixth, and his only baserunner was a two-out walk, the only one allowed on Monday. For the series, the Golden Eagles gave up just four walks.

“There was that sense of urgency,” said Berry. “Both teams were looking to win the series, and Northwestern State had the momentum after their win last night.

“It was our time to come out, winner take all, to try to get that momentum back in our favor. I thought we did that.”

Freshman right-hander Tanner Hall will make his college debut as the starting pitcher on Tuesday as the Golden Eagles hit the road for the first time this season against South Alabama at Mobile.

“They’re going to be very competitive,” said Berry of the Jaguars, who dropped two of three games this past weekend to Southeastern Missouri State. “They’re a well-coached team, and Stanky Field is never an easy place to come in and win.”

Southern Miss will be back at Pete Taylor Park next Friday, opening a three-game series against Connecticut.

This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 6:47 PM.