Golden Eagles lay an egg in Hattiesburg Regional opener, fall to No. 4 seed
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Miami scored three runs in the first inning on Daniel Cuvet's home run.
- Starter AJ Ciscar struck out eight and walked one over 97 pitches for Miami.
- Alabama's late-inning rallies fell short as Miami secured a 5-3 regional win.
Southern Miss may have gotten hot at just the wrong time.
The Golden Eagles were upset in their own regional-opener Friday, losing to No. 4 seed Columbia, 11-4.
It’s the first time USM has lost the opener as a No. 1-seed since 2003 and puts the Eagles at risk of being the first team pushed out of Hattiesburg.
“It just didn’t go our way,” USM coach Christian Ostrander said. “(Columbia) just never let us get comfortable. They never let us get comfortable on the mound and really never let us get comfortable in the box either.”
The Ivy League champion scored four runs in the fourth inning to open up a 6-1 lead and later expanded it with a two-run homer off the bat of Owen Estabrook in the eighth.
Matt Adams got the start for USM instead of ace JB Middleton, but Adams lasted just 3.2 innings after allowing four earned runs.
The USM lineup was lethargic against Columbia starter Jagger Edwards and reliever Alex Sotiropoulos. The pair had entered the game with ERAs of 5.27 and 7.13, respectively, but held the Eagles to three hits through seven combined innings.
Southern Miss had won 18 consecutive games heading into last Sunday’s Sun Belt championship game, but has now dropped two in a row.
No. 2 seed Alabama awaits the Eagles in the losers’ bracket. The two will play an elimination game at 2 p.m. Saturday, with the winner facing the loser of Miami and Columbia’s winners’-bracket game.
Middleton will make the start against the Tide.
Southern Miss will have to win four straight games across three days to make it out of the regional. The Golden Eagles last accomplished the feat in 2023 when they dropped their first game in the Auburn regional to Samford before winning the next four.
“It’s going to be hard, that’s not an easy route,” Ostrander said. “It’s not the route you want to go to win a regional, but it can certainly happen.”
Miami 5, Alabama 3
Miami jumped on Alabama early and never let go of its lead.
The No. 3-seed Hurricanes got three runs out of one Daniel Cuvet swing in the first inning and tagged No. 2-seed Alabama starter Riley Quick with five runs in six innings on the way to a 5-3 win in the Hattiesburg Regional opener.
A solo home run from Max Galvin in the fifth inning provided insurance and breathing room for Miami starter AJ Ciscar, who utilized a biting slider to cut down eight batters.
Ciscar, a freshman, allowed all of Alabama’s runs in the fourth inning before settling in and eventually stepping away with an economic 97 pitches thrown and just one batter walked.
Alabama put pressure on the basepaths in both the eighth and ninth innings with two runners on with two outs in both frames. The first threat ended via strikeout and the second was mere feet from a walk-off blast off the bat of Kade Snell, but fell into the glove of center fielder Michael Torres at the warning track.
The Crimson Tide picked up just two hits over the last four innings. Miami will face the winner of Southern Miss and Columbia Saturday, while Alabama gets the loser.
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM.
