Southern Miss pummeled SEMO 21-0 in the Oxford Regional. How does it handle Sunday?
After enduring a torturous 10-inning scoreless stretch, the Southern Miss baseball team unleashed a 21-0 beating of Southeast Missouri State in an elimination contest in the Oxford Regional at Swayze Field.
USM will take on Florida State in another elimination contest at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Sophomore first baseman Chris Sargent put together a career day, hitting three of the Golden Eagles’ six home runs in the game. He was 3-for-6 with three runs scored and five RBIs.
The Golden Eagles piled up 24 hits a day after being handcuffed with 10 runners left on base in a 5-2 loss to Florida State. Every starter registered a hit except for right fielder Reece Ewing, who was replaced by freshman Slade Wilks in the sixth inning.
After missing some opportunities against FSU, Sargent took advantage of some pitches in his wheelhouse on Saturday.
“Early in the games, I was chasing some balls out of the zone,” Sargent said. “I decided to let the ball get deep and I ran some barrels. I saw it well. I sat off-speed and got my swing off.”
Sargent said he and his teammates gathered after Friday’s loss to FSU to make sure everyone was in a good spot mentally headed into Saturday.
“We came out today with a chip on our shoulder, coming out to win,” said Sargent, who has 16 homers. “We came together as a team, knowing this could be our last chance to play together. We had good energy and we came together and played as a team today.”
USM has huge day at the plate
While there’s still plenty of work to be done if USM wants to play in the regional title round Sunday night, Saturday’s blowout may provide the momentum the Eagles badly needed at the plate.
USM received 10 hits total out of its leadoff man, Gabe Montenegro, and freshman two-hole hitter Reed Trimble, who had a pair of doubles and knocked in five runs.
Montenegro had two doubles, four runs scored and two RBIs.
Sophomore third baseman Danny Lynch finished 4-for-5 with a homer, a double and two runs batted in.
“I felt like those pitches they got, they didn’t miss them. That’s important,” Berry said. “A lot of times, you see people foul those back. When you get them, you hit them.”
Walker Powell delivers for Southern Miss
USM starting pitcher Walker Powell threw 81 pitches over six innings, leaving when a lightning delay paused the game midway through the seventh. He struck out four and walked none to improve to 10-2.
“Powell was really good,” SEMO coach Andy Sawyers said. “He had great fastball command and worked his slider into our left-handed batters. He was pretty tough.”
Matthew Adams, Aubrey Gillentine and Tanner Hall each tossed a scoreless inning in relief.
Powell appeared ready to go much deeper in the game when the lightning delay arrived, but his six-inning outing puts USM in a decent position with its staff.
The win on Saturday was the 30th of Powell’s career.
“I want to thank Walker Powell,” Berry said. “He’s a pitcher who has been a winner in our program, and I’m grateful he had enough faith in coming back after last year. He could have gone other places as we see kids do today. He’s a company man who started with us and finished with us. I’m proud of him.”
Who pitches vs. FSU?
USM has already used three starting pitchers through two games with Ben Etheridge throwing 2 ⅓ innings in relief in Friday’s 5-2 loss to FSU.
That leaves redshirt sophomore lefty Drew Boyd as the most likely option to take the mound in Sunday’s contest. He is 4-2 with a 3.76 ERA in 12 starts this season.
However, USM has yet to use lefty reliever Ryan Och, who has been dominant out of the bullpen all season. After throwing 76 pitches over 4 innings in his last outing against Louisiana Tech in the C-USA tournament, Berry has the option of using Och as a starter.
Och, who has never started at USM, is 7-0 with a 1.47 ERA in 30 ⅔ innings out of the bullpen this season.
Another starting option if USM wins Sunday afternoon could be freshman lefty Chandler Best, who is 1-1 with a 5.51 ERA in 11 appearances, including one start. He hasn’t pitched since May 14 and didn’t make the trip to the C-USA tournament because of an illness.
Berry wasn’t ready Saturday to commit to a starter for Sunday’s contest.
“We wanted to get through today before we made a decision on tomorrow,” Berry said. “I’m glad Walker went as deep as he did.”
Ole Miss 4, FSU 3
With a solid performance from Doug Nikhazy and a little luck, the No. 1 seed Ole Miss baseball edged No. 3 seed Florida State, 4-3, Saturday night to stay in the winners’ bracket of the Oxford Regional.
Nikhazy tied Ole Miss’ single-game record with 16 strikeouts and moved to fourth all-time on the Rebels’ single-season strikeout chart. After 7.0 strong innings, Nikahzy passed the baton to Taylor Broadway, who notched his 15th save of the season with two flawless innings to seal the deal.
It was a tough night offensively against the Seminoles as Ole Miss notched just four hits, two off the bat of Kevin Graham, who extended his reached-base streak to 55 games with a pair of singles. All four Rebel runs crossed on Florida State errors.
This story was originally published June 5, 2021 at 4:51 PM.
