‘You dream of nights like this.’ Southern Miss tops Ole Miss to set up do-or-die game
The Southern Miss baseball team rallied back from a pair of early deficits for two of the most impressive postseason wins in program history on Sunday, eliminating Florida State 7-4 and beating Ole Miss 10-7 in the Oxford Regional.
With the win over the Rebels, USM forced a decisive game against the Rebels at 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Whoever wins the contest will travel to face Arizona, the winner of the Tucson Regional, in a Super Regional.
The Golden Eagles rode the wave of momentum from the rally past Florida State into the Ole Miss contest.
“It was awesome,” said USM center fielder Reed Trimble, who hit a 2-run homer against Ole Miss and knocked in four runs. “You dream of nights like this where you can go to one of the places to be in the country. You wish they had crowds like this every night. I bet they’ll have another crowd tomorrow.
“This is a feeling I’ll never forget. I was battling with my best friends, my brothers. We were leaving it all on the field.”
The Golden Eagles appeared almost doomed from the start after giving up a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, but USM rebounded with nine runs on 10 hits in the first two innings to take control of the game.
After USM fought through some early struggles on the pitcher’s mound, freshman right-hander Tanner Hall stepped up down the stretch. He threw five scoreless innings, holding the Rebels to one hit while striking out five and walking none.
“Hall was really good,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “His fastball had a ton of movement. It was running in on right-handers and running away from left-handers.”
Southern Miss has pitchers available
Hall’s performance allows USM to have a somewhat rested bullpen headed into Monday’s do-or-die game at Swayze Field.
“He’s got ice water in his veins,” Berry said of Hall. “We used him a lot early in the year, and I think maybe too much. We kind of wore him down a little. He hadn’t been out there much lately. He was phenomenal at the beginning of the year. The bigger the moment, the more he wants that baseball. You saw it for five innings.”
Berry said he had yet to decide on a starting pitcher for Monday, but he acknowledged that freshman right-hander Ben Etheridge would be available after throwing 40 pitches over 2 ⅓ innings in the opener of the regional on Friday afternoon.
Other bullpen arms who should be available are right-handed closer Garrett Ramsey, freshman lefty Justin Storm, freshman right-hander Matthew Adams, sophomore right-hander Aubrey Gillentine and freshman flamethrower Hurston Waldrep.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys we haven’t thrown yet that we’re very confident in. We feel really good,” McGillis said. “Our offense is rolling. Our pitching is rolling. We’re in a good place.”
Ole Miss-USM has crazy start
The first inning was as wild as any that’s been played this postseason with Ole Miss jumping out to a 4-0 lead on some sloppy pitching by Southern Miss. Freshman right-hander Blake Wehunt, who got the start, struck out the first batter he faced, then hit two batters and walked two more.
Lefty Chandler Best steadied the ship after replacing Wehunt with one out, but it appeared early that the Rebels were ready to roll past the Golden Eagles.
In the bottom half, the Golden Eagles responded with seven runs on eight hits. It all started with a lead-off double by Gabe Montenegro and Trimble followed with a two-run home run to left.
The Golden Eagles poured on five more runs before a stunned home crowd, sending the contingent of USM faithful into a frenzy.
A solo shot by Peyton Chatgnier got one run back for the Rebels in the second, but junior second baseman Will McGillis continued his red hot day when he hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to push the USM lead to 9-5 after two innings.
“I’m seeing the ball well,” McGillis. “I’m seeing pitches over the plate and doing damage with them.”
Senior right-hander Tyler Myers gave up the two-run bomb to McGillis, but he stepped up to provide five solid innings out of the pen for the Rebels.
He held the Golden Eagles scoreless over the next four innings, giving way to Brandon Johnson with two out in the bottom of the sixth.
Myers gave up two runs on six hits in five innings, striking out six and walking none on 95 pitches.
Bianco was not ready to commit to a starting pitcher for Monday’s game.
This story was originally published June 6, 2021 at 11:50 PM.
