Final Stats

Box Score: USM 7, LA Tech 3

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Louisiana Tech could not hang on to an early lead as No. 16 Southern Miss evened the series at one game apiece with a 7-3 victory over the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg.

Despite the Bulldogs jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the second, Southern Miss responded with one run in the bottom half of the inning before putting up three in the third to take a 4-3 lead. The Golden Eagles led the rest of the way and tacked on runs in both the sixth and eighth innings to hold on to the lead late in the game.

LA Tech (34-15, 16-10 C-USA) and Southern Miss (35-15, 19-7 C-USA) will face off in the rubber match at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pete Taylor Park with the winner of that game claiming the three-game series. The Bulldogs will send right-hander Casey Sutton (6-0, 1.31 ERA) to the mound, while USM will counter with Walker Powell (3-2, 3.67 ERA).

"Their third baseman made a great play in the second that saved some more runs and I thought that was the play of the game," head coach Greg Goff said. "He really changed the game right there with that play. I really thought our guys played extremely well today. It was another tough environment. We made a couple mistakes on the mound, didn't execute, and that's not normal. They made us pay for it. But I thought our guys had a lot of courage and confidence today and played extremely hard. We get to play for the series tomorrow and our guys are going to be ready to go."

Cameron Linck (3-1) started for LA Tech and was charged with the loss after allowing four runs on three hits and two walks in 2.2 innings of work. Linck struck out five batters before Mark Baughman came on in relief in the third and gave up a hit to the one batter he face before making way for Casey Sullivan. Sullivan pitched an inning and a third while allowing two hits, walking one and striking out two. Braden Bristo came in to pitch in the fifth and allowed three runs on three hits and struck out four in three innings on the mound. Zack Hamilton pitched the final inning while allowing one hit.

Southern Miss moved to 13-0 on the season when left-hander Kirk McCarty is on the mound for the Golden Eagles. McCarty picked up the win on the day to move to 6-0 on the season after allowing three runs on seven hits in six innings. Nick Johnson came on in relief with no outs in the seventh and picked up a three-inning save, his second of the season, while allowing just one hit and striking out three.

Louisiana Tech once again took an early lead over the Golden Eagles in the second inning after Southern Miss starter Kirk McCarty hit three batters in the inning, including once with the bases loaded to give J.D. Perry an RBI, while also issuing a bases-loaded walk and sacrifice fly to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead after an inning and a half. LA Tech had a chance to extend the lead even more in the inning, but Jonathan Washam's line drive heading down the left field line was speared by the USM third baseman to save a couple more runs from scoring.

The Golden Eagles cut the deficit to two in the bottom half of the second after Chase Scott led off the inning with a double to left field before scoring later in the inning on a wild pitch to make it a 3-1 lead for LA Tech.

Southern Miss put up three runs of its own in the bottom of the third to take a one-run lead over the Bulldogs. Three walks and three RBI base hits by Nick Dawson, Tim Lynch and Hunter Slater gave the Golden Eagles a 4-3 advantage after three innings of play.

Nick Dawson's one-out solo home run in the sixth inning extended the Southern Miss lead to 5-3 over the Bulldogs. Dawson ended the day with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate with two doubles, a home run, two RBI's and three runs scored. The Golden Eagles added two more runs in the eighth inning on an RBI single by Dylan Burdeaux and a sacrifice fly by Jake Sandlin to give USM a 7-3 advantage after eight innings.

Marshall Boggs was 2-for-4 on the day with LA Tech's only two extra-base hits of the game with a pair of doubles. Jordan Washam was also 2-for-4 Saturday with a run scored, while Sean Ullrich, Chandler Hall and J.D. Perry each had a base hit and drove in a run in the game. Jonathan Washam was also 1-for-4, while LA Tech combined to notch eight hits against Southern Miss pitching.

The road series against the Golden Eagles concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg.

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