‘I think we’ll be better.’ Southern Miss develops an identity in sweep of Missouri State
With Southern Miss now a third of the way through the college baseball regular season — and heading into Conference USA play next weekend — the Golden Eagles seem to have developed their identity.
Get lockdown starting pitching, turn to a dominant bullpen in the late innings, don’t beat themselves in the field and get just enough clutch hitting to produce a few runs.
It was all on display Sunday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park as USM defeated Missouri State 3-1 in the third and final game of a non-conference series.
Southern Miss (12-6) won for the eighth time in its last nine games to complete the weekend sweep of the Bears (6-8), who have lost seven of their last nine.
“When you have your offense not scoring a lot runs and you have your pitching backing them up, throwing up a lot of zeroes, it’s how we’ve been able to win,” USM coach Scott Berry said.
“Today, we were able to get ahead early, and I’m proud of the way we competed. I thought we played a complete game today, and, really, we did all weekend.”
Ben Ethridge delivers for Southern Miss
As was the case on a 2-1 victory on Friday and in Saturday’s 5-0 win, the Golden Eagles got a quality start from freshman Ben Ethridge, who flirted with a perfect game, retiring the first 16 batters he faced.
“I was aware of (the perfect game),” said Ethridge. “I was just trying to keep it out of my mind and not think about it.
“It happens. Everybody wants to get a perfect game. But whatever happens, you’ve got to keep going. It’s the best feeling in the world, to get in a groove and feel like nobody can hit me.”
Ethridge (1-0) went seven innings, allowed just two hits, struck out six and walked none. The only run he allowed was a solo home run to Ben Whetstone on his first pitch of the seventh inning.
“I think every pitch but my curveball was working for me,” said Ethridge. “I couldn’t get them to swing at it, I missed away with it and bounced it 10 feet in front of the plate a couple of times.
“But everything else was fantastic. My fastball was hot, I mixed my change-up more than I think I ever did, and I had a live slider to get a strike or weak contact.
The key for Ethridge was getting ahead of the hitters early in the at-bat. Of the 23 batters he faced, Ethridge got 17 first-pitch strikes.
“He didn’t get deep into too many counts at all,” said Berry. “He put his hand down on their throat and wouldn’t back off from it. Going out and getting first-pitch strikes and getting ahead was big for us.”
The Golden Eagles got all the runs they would need in the first seven pitches from MSU starter Logan Wiley (3-1).
Senior Gabe Montenegro opened the game for Southern Miss by smacking a 1-0 pitch into right field for a single, freshman Reed Trimble smoked a similar 1-0 pitch into the right field corner for a run-scoring triple.
Sophomore Charlie Fischer drove in Trimble with a sharp grounder to shortstop to stake Ethridge to a 2-0 lead.
“I knew he was going to try and get ahead of me,” said Trimble.
“Early in the game, he’s still trying to figure out how he’s going to throw. First pitch was a change-up down, so I was looking for something hard. He threw me a fastball that had a little cut on it, and he wasn’t throwing too hard, so I had time to get my hands through.”
Reed Trimble delivers for USM
Trimble made it 3-0 in the third after freshman Dustin Dickerson led off with a single. Montenegro moved Dickerson over with a sacrifice, Dickerson stole third and scored on Trimble’s deep fly ball to center field.
Those three runs would be all that Wiley would allow, as the senior right-hander — and junior right-hander Trey Ziegenbein out of the bullpen in the eighth — settled in and retired the Golden Eagles in order in four of the remaining five innings in which they batted.
Together, Wiley and Ziegenbein allowed just four hits, struck out six and only walked one, and that was an intentional pass to load the bases in the bottom of the fifth with two out. Wiley kept the Eagles off the scoreboard in that inning with an inning-ending strikeout.
“He wasn’t very overpowering, but he commanded the strike zone,” Trimble said. “He would throw a change-up for a strike, sometimes he’d cut a fastball and he had his curve working later in the game.”
But the Bears had no answer for the array of Golden Eagle arms. For the series, MSU scored just two runs and got just 11 hits, and, once again, USM did not allow many walks, just four for the three games.
Again, like the first two games, the Golden Eagle bullpen was stellar. Freshman Tyler Stuart retired the Bears in order in the eighth, with a pair of strikeouts in just 11 pitches.
Sophomore Garrett Ramsey got in some trouble in the ninth, as the Bears got two runners on base with an outfield error to open the inning and a hit batter with one out. But Ramsey got a pair of groundouts to earn his sixth save of the season in six chances.
“Certainly, we’ve pitched very, very well,” Berry said. “Defensively, for the most part, we’ve played pretty good defense. Offensively, we know the struggles there. But we will continue to work on that, and I think we’ll get better as the season goes along.”
The Golden Eagles face a tough week ahead, as they travel to Alabama on Tuesday, then host Louisiana Tech on Friday for the first of a four-game weekend series to open C-USA play.
“Tech is a very good team,” Berry said of the Bulldogs, who are 12-5 after sweeping Tulane on the road this weekend.
“Early in the year, they were struggling a little bit on the mound, but they’ve always been able to hit. Now, their pitchers shut out Tulane twice, they have a couple of big wins against SEC teams, beat Arkansas Sunday and put it on Ole Miss 13-1 Tuesday.”
First pitch Tuesday at Tuscaloosa, Alabama is scheduled for 6 p.m. Start time Friday is 6 p.m., with a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday and a 1 p.m. start in a single game Sunday.