USM misses out on a prime opportunity; Scott Berry gives an update on his injured star
Southern Miss let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers Sunday afternoon.
With a chance to jump ahead of Louisiana Tech and move into first place in the Conference USA West Division, the Golden Eagles couldn’t get the job done against Western Kentucky at sun-splashed Pete Taylor Park.
The Hilltoppers scored five runs in the sixth inning and never looked back, taking a 9-4 victory to salvage the final game of the four-game series, after USM won the first three.
Southern Miss (26-13 overall) stayed a half-game behind Tech in the division standings at 13-6 in C-USA play. WKU remained in the hunt for a spot in the conference tournament next month at Ruston, Louisiana, improving to 19-21 and 9-11.
“As proud as I am for winning the series, but when you get yourself in position to sweep and you don’t do it, it’s disappointing,” said Southern Miss coach Scott Berry.
“We just didn’t compete enough to give ourselves a chance. We did for half a game, but the second half of the game, we just got beat.”
The missed opportunities plagued the Golden Eagles on the field, both offensively and defensively. Southern Miss left the bases loaded in the second and fourth innings, and the bullpen was unable to get outs when they needed them.
The one real bright spot for USM was the performance of starting pitcher Drew Boyd. The freshman left-hander was great early and solid throughout his five-plus innings.
“I felt very strong, especially in those first few innings, trusting the fastball,” said Boyd. “I felt like I could land it anywhere, then come in with the breaking ball.”
Both Boyd and WKU freshman right-hander Luke Stofel started strong. Boyd needed just 12 pitches to strike out the side in the top of the first inning, and Stofel was even more efficient in the bottom of the inning, getting three groundouts on six pitches.
A double play in the top of the second erased a leadoff walk, and the Golden Eagles broke through for two runs in the bottom of the second.
With one out, sophomore Danny Lynch reached second on an error in the outfield, two walks loaded the bases and Lynch scored when sophomore Blake Johnson was hit by a pitch.
Freshman Dustin Dickerson followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0, and USM appeared poised for a big inning. But junior Gabe Montenegro grounded into a force at the plate and sophomore Reese Ewing grounded out to leave the bases loaded.
“I was disappointed when we left the bases loaded in the second,” Berry said. “We scored two runs, but one came in on a hit batter. We just never got the big blow to open it up the way they did.
“We just never did get any good swings today. We had very few outs that were hard-hit balls.”
Indeed, the inability to score more runs in the second came back to bite Southern Miss when the Hilltoppers tied it up with two runs in the top of the third.
A leadoff walk, a single and a sacrifice got runners to second and third, and Boyd was able to get the lead runner caught in a rundown on a ground ball. However, the runners were able to move to second and third, and Justin Carlin drove them both in with a single up the middle.
Sophomore Christopher Sargent gave the lead back to Southern Miss in the bottom of the third with a solo home run, his eighth of the season, one of just three hits for the Golden Eagles.
“I just wanted to compete at the plate today,” said Sargent. “I had a long at-bat going, and knew he’d miss one down the middle. He did and I kept my eyes on it and got a good swing.”
After Stofel walked sophomore Will McGillis to lead off the third inning, Western Kentucky went to its bullpen for junior right-hander Ryan McConnell, who got two quick outs, then loaded the bases with a pair of walks.
Again, a big inning looked promising, with sophomore Charlie Fischer at the plate. Fischer was leading the team with a .349 batting average, and he hit one hard, but Ty Crittenberger was able to run it down in deep center field for the third out of the inning.
It was one of several plays that indicated the WKU had come to play. The three USM victories were hard-fought, and the Hilltoppers look like a team that could be dangerous if they can make it to Ruston.
“I think they’re a lot like us,” said Berry. “They hang their hat on starting pitching, their hitting is very similar to ours and they have some guys with very good swings who can hurt you. They had some really good at-bats the whole weekend.”
Boyd allowed five hits and three runs, he struck out six and walked three. He left after the leadoff batter in the sixth, Richard Constantine, doubled into the gap in left-center field, and that was when the game turned south for Southern Miss.
“I had all the confidence,” Boyd said. “Coach Oz (pitching coach Christian Ostrander) asked if I felt good enough to go one more inning. My arm felt goodm so I said I could. That first batter got a good swing, and the decision was to let the bullpen guys get out of it.”
For one of the few times this season, though, the Golden Eagle bullpen was not up to the task.
WKU took advantage of the opportunities offered in the five-run sixth inning rally. The Hilltoppers sent 10 men to the plate, getting four hits, a costly error in the infield and a two-run double by leadoff man Ray Zuberer.
Freshman right-hander Blake Wehunt (1-1), who followed Boyd to the mound, took the loss for Southern Miss, while McConnell (1-3) was the beneficiary of WKU’s go-ahead rally.
“Wehunt had some seeing-eye hits that got their inning going,” Berry said. “He was the recipient of some really tough luck. Outside of that, we just didn’t get the stops that we needed.”
Southern Miss got one of the runs back in the bottom of the sixth, when McGillis was hit with a pitch leading off. Johnson was also hit by a pitch, then Dickerson flied out, bringing lefty Dalton Shoemake to the mound for the Hilltoppers.
Shoemake, coming in with runners on first and third, needed just six pitches to get out of the inning. He retired Montenegro on a bouncer between the mound and first base, allowing the run to score, then struck out Ewing for the final out of the inning.
Ewing was batting in the second spot in the Golden Eagle batting order after freshman Reed Trimble was scratched from the lineup. Trimble was hit on the knee with a pitch in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, and was unable to go on Sunday.
“That knee was severely swollen this morning; it came up overnight, more than we expected,” Berry said. “He just could not move on it. He was available for a Kirk Gibson pinch-hit if we’d needed him, but we could never get to that point.
“I think you saw some things with his absence, from the offensive side and defensive side, having to shuffle some players around (in the field). I didn’t like the offensive alignment I had to go with, but I had no choice.”
Berry said Trimble should be ready to go for next weekend’s C-USA series at Rice, the Golden Eagles’ next action.
“He’d better be, or I’m not getting on the bus.” Berry said.
Shoemake was dominant in 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for WKU. He allowed just two hits, struck out six and walked two in earning his first save of the season.
The Hilltoppers helped him out by adding single tallies in the seventh and eighth innings, the final run coming on a solo homer by Carlin, who was 3 for 4 with three RBIs.
Although it was a disappointing afternoon, the Golden Eagles were happy to win the series and remain confident that their goals are still attainable.
“We just have to look at how we’ve been playing lately,” Sargent said. “We just have to keep our confidence up. We know we’re a good team; we just have to out there and keep competing every day.”
Next weekend’s series at Reckling Park in Houston opens Friday with a 6 p.m. start. The two teams will play a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday, and the final game of the series is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Golden Eagles play their final non-conference game of the season on May 4 at home against Southeastern Louisiana.
This story was originally published April 25, 2021 at 7:37 PM.