How the La. Tech-Southern Miss baseball series was decided in Hattiesburg
Leaving runners on base in scoring situations has been an issue for Southern Miss throughout the first half of the season, and it proved costly this weekend in the Golden Eagles’ opening Conference USA series against Louisiana Tech.
After leaving 10 runners on base Friday in a 3-2 loss, USM stranded 12 runners Sunday as the Bulldogs prevailed 8-7 in a see-saw battle at Pete Taylor Park.
As a result, Southern Miss (14-9 overall) finds itself in a hole in the league standings, as Louisiana Tech (17-6 overall), ranked No. 21 in the Perfect Game Baseball poll and 23rd in the d1baseball.com rankings, took three of the four games in the series.
“We had too many runners left out there, especially after getting runners to third with less than two outs,” USM coach Scott Berry said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t play well enough to beat a good Louisiana Tech team.”
Things started well for the Golden Eagles, though, as they took a 4-0 lead after two innings.
After USM starter Drew Boyd retired the Bulldogs in order in the top of the first, junior Gabe Montenegro smacked a leadoff single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on sophomore Charlie Fischer’s one-out single.
Later in the inning, sophomore Will McGillis made it 2-0 with a bases-loaded single. However, USM could have had more, as the Golden Eagles left the bases loaded.
In the second, Montenegro hit a triple off the fence in right center, scoring on freshman Reed Trimble’s single. Trimble stole second and scored on an error at shortstop.
But Southern Miss left two runners on in the second and stranded two more without scoring in the third.
“We had several opportunities to score, and we didn’t get the job done,” said Trimble. “That’s something we’ve really got to focus on and get better at as a team.”
La. Tech’s bats warm up
However, the Bulldogs came into the weekend with a team batting average of .287, and they started chipping away at the four-run deficit with a run in the third.
Kyle Hasler led off the inning with an infield single and scored on Parker Bates’ run-scoring single. Bates was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double to end the inning, but Tech had begun to find its offense.
“They were able to get that leadoff guy on in several innings, whether it be hit by a pitch, a walk or a base hit,” said Berry. “That was a big key in their run-scoring innings.”
Boyd, the freshman left-hander from Oak Grove, got the Golden Eagles into the sixth, but he ran into immediate trouble when Bates led off the inning with a single, took third on an error at third base and scored on Manny Garcia’s single.
Louisiana Tech tied it up with two more runs in the sixth, as the Golden Eagles were unable to make a play at the plate on a ground ball to first and failed to turn a one-out double play that would have ended the inning and allowed the tying run to score.
“The shame of it is, we had opportunities today, and we didn’t take care of business defensively,” Berry said. “We had the inning that led to three runs where we didn’t make plays that we needed to make.
Although he didn’t factor in the decision, Boyd’s outing was encouraging, as he went five innings, allowed seven hits, three runs (two earned), struck out one and did not walk a batter.
“I thought he did a good job, covering those five innings for us,” Berry said. “He’s a guy who uses both sides of the plate, really pluses and minuses his change-up with his fastball and keeps hitters off-balance.
“He was really a good matchup for those guys, because they’re veterans and they like hard stuff, so he was a good matchup today.”
In the seventh and eighth innings, USM’s normally reliable bullpen proved fallible against Louisiana Tech.
On Friday, it was the bullpen that let three runs score in the seventh after senior Hunter Stanley pitched six innings of shutout ball. Sunday, it was true freshman Tanner Hall and sophomore Garrett Ramsey who came up short.
After coming on in the sixth, Hall gave up back-to-back singles to open the seventh for the Bulldogs. Ramsey, who has been lights-out as the closer this season, was brought in with one out to put out the fire and was unable to do so.
“It was one of those things, we were afraid we wouldn’t have an opportunity to use him, and we wanted to get him out there,” Berry said. “He hadn’t been out there all weekend, and he’s been pitching real well for us.
“We were hoping we could get him out there and keep them under wraps. But Tech’s a good team, and maybe he wasn’t entirely comfortable there. However, we felt like he was our best option in that spot.”
Bulldog cleanup hitter Steele Netterville greeted Ramsey with an RBI double to the center field fence, Garcia drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right, then a passed ball made it 7-4.
The Golden Eagles got off the mat in the bottom of the seventh with a three-run rally, but Ramsey hit the leadoff batter in the eighth and he came around to score what would prove to be the game-winning run on Bates’ RBI single off sophomore lefty Ryan Och.
“We didn’t get the stops out of the bullpen that we’ve been getting all year long,” Berry said. “You look at the series, we’re 1-3, and we could easily be 3-1.”
Reece Ewing comes through for USM again
Sophomore Reece Ewing led off the USM seventh with a walk and went to third on sophomore Danny Lynch’s double down the leftfield line. McGillis drew a walk to load the bases, and freshman Billy Garrity came off the bench to drive in a run with a sacrifice fly to center.
After Lynch scored on a wild pitch, Montenegro drew a two-out walk and Trimble delivered again poking an RBI single to right to tie the game 7-7.
“I knew that lefty was a little quirky, with a sidearm, low three-quarter motion,” Trimble said. “He was tough to pick up, so all I really wanted to do was put the ball in play with two outs. That’s my job.
“I didn’t hit it real hard, but I was able to get my bat on it.”
After surrendering Trimble’s RBI hit, La. Tech sophomore left-hander Kyle Griffen got a ground ball to end the inning, then worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth to earn the win, improving his record to 2-1.
Senior Tyler Follis, who was brought in with two out in the eighth, retired all four batters he faced to earn his second save of the season. Ramsey (0-1) was tagged with the loss.
Montenegro went 3 for 5 for the Golden Eagles as he extended his hitting streak to seven games. However, the top three batters in the Bulldogs’ batting order were 7 of 15, led by Bates, the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year, who was 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs.
The Golden Eagles face a short week before returning to action Thursday in San Antonio, Texas for a four-game C-USA series against UTSA. USM then gets a bit of a break before returning to Hattiesburg April 9 to take on UAB.
“It is a short week,” Berry said. “There’s four series that are Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We’ve got to get some rest and get ready to go, because UTSA is a very offensive club. They’re scoring a lot of runs, and that park out there plays small anyway.”
