Southern Miss comes out swinging and tempers flare as Eagles take Game 1 over Cajuns

With the Conference USA season now just two weeks away, Southern Miss was hoping to build some consistency with Louisiana-Lafayette coming in for a weekend series.

And the Golden Eagles put themselves on the right track, as they jumped out to a big early lead and cruised to a 13-4 victory Friday night at Pete Taylor Park.

USM (7-5) smacked three home runs in an eight-run uprising in the bottom of the second and never looked back. The Ragin’ Cajuns (9-6) dropped their third consecutive game.

“That’s three straight games now that we’ve had double-digit hits,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “That’s something we’ve been lacking, putting pressure on the opposition. We did take advantage of some walks.

“I liked the way we finished up at Jacksonville State on Saturday and Sunday. I thought we competed up there really well, and tonight against a good Louisiana team.”

USM bats wake up

USM rapped out 13 hits against five Ragin’ Cajun pitchers, and that made life a lot easier for senior right-hander Hunter Stanley, who rebounded from two sub-par outings to pitch seven innings, the longest outing of his career.

“I thought tonight I was getting ahead earlier in the count than I had been,” said Stanley (2-1), who scattered five hits, struck out eight and walked just one.

“So, it was a little harder for them to get their A swings off. They had to hit the pitch I wanted them to hit. I felt good about that. But I don’t think I did anything majorly different, other than getting ahead early.”

The Golden Eagles started the game shaky, though, as ULL scored a run on two errors and a sacrifice fly.

The first batter of the game, Tyler Robertson, reached on a throwing error, took third on a steal and a high throw from catcher Andrew Stanley, then came across on Bobby Lada’s fly ball to leftfield.

But USM started the hit parade against Ragin’ Cajun starter Hayden Durke in the next half-inning.

With one out, Reed Trimble singled and scored on a double off the centerfield fence by Charlie Fischer. Durke got a strikeout, but Reece Ewing singled into leftfield to score Trimble.

Durke (2-1) had been the Cajuns’ best pitcher thus far, allowing just four earned runs in his first three outings. But he was unable to get out of the second inning, as the Golden Eagles teed off on the freshman right-hander.

With two out, Dustin Dickerson singled up the middle, then Gabe Montenegro beat out an infield single. A walk to Trimble loaded the bases and a walk to Fischer produced a run. Christopher Sargent followed by driving a 2-2 pitch down the leftfield line for a grand slam.

“My first at-bat, I chased two sliders in the dirt,” said Sargent. “Coach Berry told me they were going to come back with it.

“I took two sliders down, then he gave me a fastball that I just missed. I knew he was going to come back with a slider down. I got it to a 2-2 count, and I knew a fastball was coming, so I geared up for it and I hit it dead center.”

Reece Ewing followed Sargent with a solo blast, then Durke’s next pitch hit Will McGillis’ helmet, causing tempers to flare briefly. When order was restored, D.J. Lynch smashed another longball to make it 10-1.

“They were doing a little talking and they hit our batter,” said Sargent. “But we got in the dugout and said, ‘Look, we don’t play like that. Let them do all the talking and let’s just play baseball.’”

The Golden Eagles added another run in the third, when Ewing drew another bases-loaded walk, and USM tacked on two more runs in the seventh on McGillis’ two-run double after a walk and an error on a potential double-play ball.

Hunter Stanley steps up for USM

Stanley gave up a pair of solo home runs in the fourth to Ben Fitzgerald and Drake Osborn, but all in all, it was a solid outing.

“I thought he had really good stuff tonight,” said Berry. “He’s a real competitor, a strike-thrower. He goes out there and gets strikes, and that’s who he is. He comes out and attacks you with a power fastball and a really good slider, and when he’s got that change-up working down, it really compliments his fastball.”

Stanley mixed his fastball and slider, and his change-up was a pitch he used to get batters to miss. Stanley threw 90 pitches and 65 went for strikes.

“It was mainly fastballs and sliders, and I mixed in a couple of change-ups,” said Stanley. “When I was getting a lot of swings and misses, it was with the change-up.

“I’ve always gotten stronger as I go, although it’s a little different at this level. But I felt good in the sixth and seventh; my stuff was still strong. We talked about me going out for the eighth, but that inning turned into kind of a long one, so we decided to go to the bullpen.”

Freshman Justin Storm pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, then freshman Blake Wehunt made his 2021 debut in the ninth, giving up an unearned run. The Golden Eagles committed four errors in the game, and that’s something Berry wants to see corrected.

“We got a little sloppy at times,” Berry said. “I wasn’t happy about that. But those are learning moments, and hopefully they’ll retain it and apply it to the next situation, because they are going to run. That’s what they do.”

The second game of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, with senior right-hander Walker Powell (1-1) taking the mound for Southern Miss. Sophomore right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (2-0) is the scheduled starter for ULL.