Double the fun: Southern Miss slugs way to winner-take-all final against Miami
Three down, one to go.
Southern Miss has battled its way from a region-opening loss to Columbia to a winner-take-all battle with Miami after forcing an extra Hattiesburg regional championship game with a 17-6 win over the Hurricanes.
The Golden Eagles exploded with nine runs in the first inning and weathered multiple Miami rallies that threatened to dig into USM’s lead.
“Super proud of the guys, that’s a long day of baseball,” USM coach Christian Ostrander said after the nearly four-hour long nightcap. “You don’t do what they did today without having some toughness about you and some grit, and I think they showed that.”
Colby Allen threw 30 pitches in Saturday’s win over Alabama and was called on to start the second of Sunday’s lose-and-go-home games. Allen held in for 78 pitches over four innings and was charged with three runs.
The offense traded its fire-wrapped bats of the first inning for ice picks much of the rest of the night, going scoreless for four consecutive innings until Joey Urban launched his second home run of the game in the seventh.
Urban drove in five runs and notched the first multi-home run game of his career.
“Baseball is a game of momentum,” Ostrander said. “We kind of punched them in the mouth, got some momentum and it got contagious. It got contagious with our hitters.”
Freshman Camden Sunstrom bridged the back half of the game’s mound work with a career-high 75 pitches over 4.2 innings of work. This performance came just hours after freshman Grayden Harris ate a career-best 6.1 innings against Columbia. The pair allowed just two runs — one earned — over 11 combined innings.
“It’s our model, we believe in getting high school talent and letting them grow and helping them grow,” Ostrander said. “We sign them expecting them to be ready to pitch and contribute and play right away and let those roles grow as they go.”
Southern Miss chewed through five Hurricane pitchers before Miami turned to freshman infielder Brandon DeGoti in the ninth as his first career pitching assignment, helping USM take out a four-run insurance policy in the final frame. Tucker Stockman delivered three of them with his sixth home run of the year.
The Eagles will play Monday at 8 p.m. for a shot to host their third Super Regional in four years. The stakes have been raised by Vanderbilt’s stunning elimination from the Nashville regional. If the Eagles are able to advance, Louisville would come to Hattiesburg for a Super Regional next weekend.
Southern Miss 8, Columbia 1
Southern Miss will not be denied its own regional final.
Freshman starter Grayden Harris chewed through 6.1 crucial innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 win over Columbia, eliminating the Lions from the Hattiesburg Regional and setting up an evening showdown with third-seeded Miami.
The teams were locked at 1 through five innings before the Golden Eagles plated one each in the sixth and seventh innings.
Ben Higdon blew the game open in the eighth when he sent a ball 405 feet into the Right Field Roost for a three-run round-tripper.
“Grayden (Harris) was lights out covering what he did against a good offense,” USM coach Christian Ostrander said after the game. “Our offense got going there and we were able to separate a little bit toward the end of the game. Just overall proud of the guys for surviving and advancing and getting a chance to play again tonight.”
Southern Miss got multi-hit games from Nick Monistere, Jake Cook, Drey Barrett and Saturday hero Tucker Stockman. Landen Payne covered the final 2.2 innings from the mound, allowing a number of critical arms to stay fresh for the nightcap.
The stakes have been raised by Vanderbilt’s stunning elimination from the Nashville regional. If the Eagles are able to advance, the Super Regional round will be coming to Hattiesburg next weekend.
This story was originally published June 1, 2025 at 5:06 PM.
