HATTIESBURG, Miss. |
Ethan Bates hit a three-run homer in the eighth to make it a one-run game and threw a seven-pitch, 1-2-3 bottom of the inning but it wasn't enough as Southern Miss beat the Bulldogs, 6-5, before 5,204 on a partly cloudy and warm evening at Pete Taylor Park.
Tech made a little noise early with a 2-0 lead in the second and a lot late with the three runs in the eighth but was quiet in the middle innings as the Bulldogs lost for the fourth straight time after going on a four-game win streak, the team's longest of the season.
Tech is 20-22; Southern Miss, a 3-1 loser to Tech last week, improved to 25-15.
With Tech trailing 6-3 in the eighth,
Dalton Davis singled and, after two groundball outs,
Jorge Corona got his second hit of the night to set up Bates, who yanked a 2-2 pitch off Colby Allen, the fourth Eagle pitcher of the game, 355 feet, high and just over the wall in right.
But after Bates and Tech had battled back and retired the Eagles in the eighth, Tech, despite a couple of good at-bats, was retired in order in the ninth.
Tech took a 2-0 lead with single runs in each of the first two innings.
Against sophomore righty and winner Niko Mazza, 5-1 and making his ninth start of the spring, Davis led off the game and reached on an error.
Logan McLeod walked, and a deep fly ball to
right center advanced McLeod to second and Davis to third. Davis scored on Corona's fielder's choice ground ball to shortstop for a 1-0 lead, but McLeod was out trying to take third.
Philip Matulia doubled to right to lead off the second, advanced on a ground ball to second and scored on a wild pitch.
Tech starter
Reed Smith, the winner in last week's 3-1 victory over Southern Miss in Ruston, sat the Eagles down in order in the first but was hit hard in the second as USM tied it at 2-2 on a pair of doubles, an RBI single and an RBI sacrifice fly.
Alec Sparks, who started Saturday and took the loss at Dallas Baptist, relieved for the Bulldogs and gave up single runs in the third and fourth as USM took a 4-2 lead and Sparks, 3-3, took the loss.
Southern Miss shortstop Dustin Dickerson led off the third with a single, and a two-out seeing-eye single from 5-hole hitter Danny Lynch scored him. Senior rightfielder Reece Ewing hit his fourth homer of the season to lead off the fourth.
Tech lefty
Ryan Harland relieved and pitched a 1-2-3 with two strikeouts in the fifth but was relieved in the sixth after USM scored twice to make it 6-2 on two doubles, a single and a sac fly before
Landon Tomkins, who pitched through the seventh, came in with two outs and a man on third and struck out Dickerson, the team's leader in hits.
"The frustrating thing is we couldn't get a stop," Tech coach
Lane Burroughs said. "It's the little things that add up; it doesn't seem like it at the moment, but it's the little things that catch up to you. We minimized some innings for the most part, but it's a lot of traffic and a lot of stressful innings."
UP NEXT
LA Tech will complete a seven-game road swing with a three-game set at Middle Tennessee in Murfressboro, Tenn. beginning Friday, Apr. 28, at 6 p.m. Game two is schedule for Saturday, Apr. 29, at 2 p.m. and Sunday's rubber match is slated for 1 p.m.
