By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss started slow, but finished fast Friday night, and as a result the Golden Eagles remain alive in the Conference USA Baseball Tournament.
USM broke open a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, then added three more runs in the eighth for a 5-0 win over Florida Atlantic in an elimination game in the C-USA Tournament at Pete Taylor Park.
Southern Miss (43-15) advanced to the semifinal round at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against UTSA, which defeated the Golden Eagles 7-6 earlier Friday. USM needs to beat the Roadrunners twice Saturday, if it is to reach Sunday’s championship game.
FAU (35-23) may have seen its faint hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth slip away with the defeat.
“Real proud of them,” said Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry. “I told them after the game that is a golden opportunity to write really good story, if we can pull it off.”
The Golden Eagles rode a big-game performance by senior right-hander Hunter Riggins, and junior Danny Lynch smacked a pair of doubles to lead the offense.
“I’m starting to feel better at the plate,” said Lynch. “Getting into postseason, it’s kind of like a new season. You’re just reinvigorated. It’s exciting.”
Riggins pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowed five hits, struck out seven and walked three. Those three walks played a big role in what may well have been the play of the tournament.
After getting two quick outs in the top of the third, Riggins briefly lost the strike zone, and in short order the Owls loaded the bases.
“I don’t think I’ve walked three batters back-to-back-to-back in my life,” said Riggins. “It was a tough time (of day) to pitch, making it hard to find my target with the sun in my eyes. And I may have been trying to work the corners a little bit too much right there.”
Up stepped cleanup hitter Dylan Goldstein, who smoked an 0-1 pitch high and deep toward the scoreboard in leftfield. Golden Eagle leftfielder Reese Ewing measured the ball, leaped and made the grab off the top of the fence.
“What I was thinking was that earlier in the season, I had a chance to make a play like that, and I was close, but I was watching the ball the whole time, so I was late getting there,” said Ewing.
“The first thing was to just get to the wall and work off that. I timed it right. Yes, I believe it would have been (a grand slam if he hadn’t caught the ball). Playing the outfield, you have to be ready. You only get, maybe, a couple of balls a game, so you have to stay alert.”
Ewing’s play seemed to galvanize Southern Miss, as head coach Scott Berry said.
“I think that brought attention to Riggins, how he was pitching, how he wasn’t attacking, but just being too picky nibbling around at the corners,” said Berry.
“That was the message when he came back to the dugout, to quit messing around and put them away. Go at them; that’s what he’s known to do, and I really felt from that point on, he was different pitcher.”
The effects weren’t immediate at the plate, but on the mound, Riggins seemed to find a higher gear, as FAU only had three baserunners the rest of the game.
“I had an extra day of rest that I didn’t know I was going to have because of the rain (earlier in the week),” said Riggins. “I was planning on going six (innings) and ended up going seven.”
It’s a good thing Riggins was lights-out most of the night, because the Golden Eagles had difficulty with Owls starter Jacob Josey. The freshman right-hander was efficient and effective until the seventh.
“That guy, early in the game, was pitching well,” said Lynch. “He kind of had our number for a while there. He had a good kind of sinker/change-up combo, and he was really staying down in the zone; he wasn’t missing up much, and that was kind of getting to us.
“Later in the game, we started taking some walks, and I think he got tired there and we were able to get a couple of runs.”
USM didn’t get its first hit until sophomore Dustin Dickerson led off the fourth with a single, and he was immediately erased on the second of three double plays turned in by the Owls.
A leadoff walk in the fifth came to nothing, and the Golden Eagles were unable to score in the sixth after loading the bases with one out. Senior Gabe Montenegro tried to score on a flyball to rightfield, but FAU’s Tyler Kelder threw a strike to the plate to nail Montenegro.
“There was a premium on runs, and nobody was getting anything across,” said Berry. “The offense just wasn’t there tonight, the opportunities weren’t there, so you had to push things.
“Credit their guy; he made a heck of a throw, and Sargent didn’t get enough of it. But we felt like we had to gamble there.”
But the Golden Eagles finally got to Josey in the seventh. With one out, Lynch turned on a pitch and pulled it into the rightfield corner for a double, then junior Will McGillis was hit by a pitch.
Josey got an out on a flyball to center, but sophomore Rodrigo Montenegro smacked the next pitch into centerfield for the first run of the game. Two walks, to Gabe Montenegro and Dickerson, made it 2-0.
Josey (4-5) took the loss for FAU, giving up five hits, he struck out two and walked four.
“There was no doubt, Rodrigo’s hit was big for us,” said Berry. “With Danny standing on second base, it’s never easy scoring him from second.”
Sargent went the other way to send a double into the rightfield corner to lead off the eighth, went to third on a groundout and trotted home on Lynch’s second double of the game, just inside the bag at first.
Freshman Carson Paetow put the ribbon on the package after McGillis was hit by a pitch for the second time, mashing a two-run double to centerfield.
Riggins (8-4) got one out in the eighth, surrendered a single to Rincones and departed to a standing ovation from the 3,172 fans in attendance.
Sophomore lefty Dalton Rogers got the final two outs of the eighth on five pitches, then worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth for his sixth save of the season.
The task Southern Miss faces on Saturday will be a challenge, as the Golden Eagles are still trying to improve their postseason resume with an eye on hosting an NCAA Tournament regional next weekend.
“Our mindset for Saturday is to just go out and play our best game,” Ewing said. “We all believe in each other, in every single one of us, and I think we’re going to make a good run at this.”
College Baseball Linescore
Conference USA Tournament
Game 10
Friday at Pete Taylor Park
Southern Miss 5, Florida Atlantic 0
FAU 000 000 000 – 0 5 1
USM 000 000 23X – 5 8 0
FLORIDA ATLANTIC (35-23): Armando Albert 1B; Gabriel Rincones Jr. 1B; Nolan Schanuel 1B; Jackson Ross 1B; Caleb Pendleton 1B. LP – Jacob Josey (4-5). Also pitching – Robert Wegielnik; Sam Drumheller; Nicholas Del Prado.
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI (43-15): Gabe Montenegro 1B; Dustin Dickerson 2 1B; Christopher Sargent 2B; Danny Lynch 2 2B; Carson Paetow 2B; Rodrigo Montenegro 1B. WP – Hunter Riggins (8-4). Save – Dalton Rogers (6).
