University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Complete Three-Game C-USA Sweep of Saint Louis
3/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Eagles Complete Three-Game C-USA Sweep of Saint Louis
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss got six strong innings on the mound from Stephen Castleman, and continued to hit the ball well in a 9-6 victory over Saint Louis here Sunday. The victory completed a three-game weekend Conference USA sweep of the Billikens.
It also was their sixth-straight win in a row and the first Golden Eagle sweep over a Billiken team since the 1999 season. The Golden Eagles improved to 15-4 (3-0, C-USA) while the visitors dropped to 4-7 (0-3, C-USA). Southern Miss will host South Alabama Tuesday night to complete a nine-game home stand, and then travel to Louisville for a three-game C-USA series (Mar. 21-23), before playing Mississippi Valley State Mar. 25 in Jackson, Miss.
Head Coach Corky Palmer was pleased with his team?s play throughout the weekend, but especially so with Sunday?s game. ?I thought we played hard in all three games,? he said. ?We didn?t play as well, at times, in the first two games as we did today. I thought we played one of our better games of the season today. We pitched well, and continued to attack the ball at the plate. It was a good weekend for us, a solid start in conference play.?
The visiting Billikens grabbed their only lead of the weekend in the second inning of today?s game, when Steve Moss drew the first of three walks Castleman would issue during his 6.1 innings of work, moved to second of a wild pitch, to third on an infield groundout and scored on a Pat Steinhoff single up the middle.
The Golden Eagles bounced back to tie the score with a single run in the fourth inning. Jarrett Hoffpauir singled through the left side, Brad Willcutt walked, and Clint King singled through the right side to score Hoffpauir. Another run in the fifth inning gave the Eagles a one-run edge. Beau Griffin singled up the middle, advanced to second on an error, moved to third on a Matt Shepherd sacrifice bunt and scored on pinch hitter Jason Lowery?s single to left.
Southern Miss broke open the game in the sixth inning with five runs. Jeff Cook got it started with a single, Willcutt doubled to score Cook and Willcutt then scored on a Billiken error on a ball hit by Clint King, who took second on the error. King moved to third on an infield groundout, and scored on another Billiken error on an infield grounder by Marc Maddox, who was pinch-hitting for Griff Israel. Griffin then singled to push Maddox to third, and he scored when Shepherd lined out to left field. After stealing second, Griffin then scored the final run of the inning on a Lowery single. The Eagles collected five hits and used a pair of Billiken errors to move ahead, 7-1.
Saint Louis fought back quickly, with four runs in the top of the seventh. The Billikens got just two hits in the inning, but the big one came off the bat of Corey Lawson, who hit a three-run home run to deep left field.
Southern Miss added some cushion in the bottom of the same inning when the Eagles added two runs on two hits. Willcutt walked and moved to second on an Adam Smith single. Both runners moved up on a Maddox single and scored on a wild pitch. Smith then scored on a sacrifice fly by Shepherd.
Saint Louis added its final run in the top of the ninth, but could get no closer.
The Golden Eagles again were effective at the plate, putting up 15 hits. That included 14 singles, and the lone extra base hit, a double by Shepherd. Hoffpauir, Cook, Willcutt, King and Griffin all had two hits each for the Eagles. Saint Louis collected nine hits off three Golden Eagle pitchers, with Rogers, Lawson and Steve Moss getting two each.
Castleman gave up three runs, one earned, on five hits in his 6.1 innings to run his record to 3-0. Ray Antonelli threw two-thirds of an inning and John Nicholas went the final two innings. Starter Jake Baumgartner also threw 6.1 innings, gave up nine runs (five earned), on 12 hits to take the loss and drops to 2-1.
