‘Guys are tore up, crushed.’ A look inside USM baseball’s 2-game collapse vs. La. Tech
The Southern Miss baseball team’s chances of hosting an NCAA regional faded nearly completely with a pair of losses to Louisiana Tech in the semifinal round of the Conference USA tournament on Saturday.
The Bulldogs rallied from an 8-0 deficit in the first game for an 11-10 win in 10 innings.
In the second contest, La. Tech erased a 5-2 USM advantage in the ninth to come back for a 6-5 victory on a 2-run single by Philip Matulia for the walk-off.
As Matulia rounded first, the rest of his teammates rushed the field for a celebration.
After suffering back-to-back late collapses, the Southern Miss dugout looked on in dejection before sauntering off down the left field line.
“That’s something that can make you or break you as a man,” USM freshman Slade Wilks said. “There weren’t any words said on the bus, obviously. It’s definitely something we can all learn from.”
While La. Tech surged into the lead of the C-USA chase for an NCAA regional host site, Southern Miss appears destined to be a No. 2 seed elsewhere — most likely in Oxford or Starkville.
Southern Miss baseball fails to finish
USM (37-19) dropped from No. 19 in the RPI rankings to No. 24 at the end of the second game on Saturday. The Bulldogs jumped from the high 20’s to No. 19.
Louisiana Tech (40-17) will take on a red hot Old Dominion team (41-14) at 1 p.m. in the championship contest on Sunday. The game will be shown on CBS Sports Network.
Saturday’s two games won’t soon be forgotten by either fan base.
The Louisiana Tech faithful can view Saturday as a potential turning point for the program, taking down a squad that had won three of the last four C-USA tournaments.
Golden Eagle fans will likely cringe from now on at the mention of May 29, 2021.
Southern Miss grabbed a 4-2 lead in the top of the ninth of the second game when Wilks lifted a one-out, 3-run home run just over the right field wall. The lead was pushed to 5-2 on a sacrifice fly RBI by Brady Faust.
USM right-handed reliever Aubrey Gillentine started the bottom of the ninth on the mound, but he was removed after giving up a leadoff hit.
Scott Berry explains Dustin Dickerson move
USM pitching coach Christian Ostrander then walked out to the mound and appeared to call in closer Garrett Ramsey from the bullpen, but instead went to shortstop Dustin Dickerson to take over.
Dickerson, whose fastball hit 94 miles per hour, had not pitched since his senior year at West Jones High School in 2019.
“As you have seen over the last two to three weeks, our bullpen hasn’t been real sharp,” Berry said. “We didn’t have many guys available. We were depleted.
“Dickerson has been throwing bullpens on the side and he has a really electric arm. His fastball was there, but his secondary wasn’t tonight. We thought maybe he’d give us a shot in the arm because we didn’t have the options to match up against La. Tech.”
Dickerson struck out the first batter he faced, but the next man up, Parker Bates, singled to put men on first and third with one out.
Steele Netterville then hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring home Taylor Young from third to cut the USM lead to 5-3.
Next up, Cole McConnell singled to right to knock in Bates to make it 5-4. Faust, who took over at second when Dickerson went to the mound, tried to track the ball into shallow right, but the wind was swirling at the moment and the ball dropped untouched.
Berry was asked post-game if he was concerned about making the defensive changes that went along with putting Dickerson on the mound.
“No, not really. There wasn’t anything else we could do with that,” Berry said. “If we had a crystal ball and knew certain plays would happen, we might be able to write the story differently.
“We felt good about it with a three-run lead. I felt good when we put Dickerson out there. It didn’t work out.”
A single by Manny Garcia, who finished 5-for-5, and a walk issued to Jorge Corona loaded the bases with two out for Matulia, who ripped a single into the gap in the right center to score both runs to clinch the win.
Freshman right-hander Ben Etheridge gave the Golden Eagles the quality start they badly needed, giving up one run on nine hits in 6 ⅓ innings. He struck out six and walked none.
Louisiana Tech received an outstanding start from Greg Martinez, who entered the game an ERA of 8.50. He gave up three runs on nine hits in 8 1/3 innings, striking out nine and walking two.
USM can’t preserve big lead
The loss in the second game only compounded USM’s disappointment from dropping the first contest after holding an 8-0 lead.
“Guys are tore up, crushed … the coaching staff and everybody involved,” Berry said. “We had the game where we wanted it. We just didn’t close it out.”
Berry expects his guys to rebound in time for the regional.
“It’s life, man,” he said. “How do you get past moving on from somebody you love? You’ve got to keep moving on. That’s what happened. We lost two games that were really tough.
“The next day is a new day. That’s all we can do, nothing else. We have a good ball club.”
USM sophomore first baseman Christopher Sargent hit two mammoth home runs in the first game on Saturday. His first was a solo shot that cleared the batter’s eye in center field. The second was a 3-run moonshot that landed well beyond the left field wall as part of a five-run frame that gave the Golden Eagles an 8-0 lead after four innings.
USM could only manage one run the rest of the way as the bullpen slowly fell apart after the removal of starting pitcher Drew Boyd, who gave up four earned runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Right-handed reliever Tyler Stuart calmed things down late, but he was given the tough luck loss after allowing a walk-off RBI double by Netterville in the 10th.
“One thing we can take away is we can be a really, really good ball team at times,” Wilks said. “We have to remember that and take that losing feeling and keep it stored up.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 12:36 AM.
