University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagles Lose At Ole Miss, Tulane Is Next
3/26/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Golden Eagles Lose At Ole Miss, Tulane Is Next
OXFORD, Miss. ? Southern Miss completed a quick midweek, two-game road swing with an 6-3 loss at Ole Miss here Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles beat Mississippi Valley State, 11-0, in the inaugural Adjutant General's Cup game at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson Tuesday night to earn a split in the two game trip.
With the loss, Southern Miss drops to 18-7 while Ole Miss improves to 17-7.
The Rebels grabbed a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the third inning, but then saw Head Coach Corky Palmer's team come back quickly with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to go ahead, 3-1, midway through the fifth inning. In the fourth, Jarrett Hoffpauir singled and Jason Lowery homered to left field, his second of the season. The Eagles padded that lead the next inning when Marc Maddox singled to right, moved to second on a Matt Shepherd single and Beau Griffin loaded the bases when he reached on a bunt.
After Kevin Coker fouled out to third, Hoffpauir then got a fly ball deep enough to center to score Maddox.
The lead was short-lived though as the Rebels used designated hitter Charlie Babineaux's home run, following a Seth Smith walk, to tie the score. An inning later, Ole Miss put what would prove to be the winning runs on the board when Matt Tolbert singled and advanced to second on an infield groundout. Jonathan Swearingen picked up an infield hit that moved Tolbert to third and Chad Sterbins was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Seth Smith singled to score Swearingen and Tolbert, and Sterbens scored the third and final run of the inning on a Charlie Waite sacrifice fly.
Neither team managed to score in the final three innings.
Jeremy Zick, the third of four Rebel pitchers, threw two scoreless inning to earn the victory, evening his record at 2-2. Noah Tritz, the second of four Golden Eagle hurlers in the game, took the loss and dropped to 0-1. Southern Miss starter Brent Leach threw four solid innings, giving up just two runs, before leaving with a blister on his pitching hand.
The final Ole Miss pitcher, Stephen Head, earned his fourth save of the season. The four Southern Miss pitchers gave up 11 hits and walked just one. Golden Eagle hitters collected eight hits, but also stranded five baserunners, including a two-on, no-out situation in the sixth that failed to produce a run and a bases-loaded, no-out fifth inning that produced just the single run. Jeff Cook led Southern Miss with a pair of singles, the only Golden Eagle with more than a single hit.
Swearingen and Seth Smith had three hits each for the Rebels and Babineaux added a pair. Smith's hits produced three RBI's and Babineaux collected a pair of RBI's.
Southern Miss returns to action with a three-game Conference USA weekend series against Tulane. Games are scheduled for 6:30 Friday night, 3 p.m., Saturday afternoon, and 1 p.m., Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles take a league-best 5-1 (tied with TCU) record into the game and Tulane is close behind at 4-2.
Also, youth teams and individual team members, in their team uniforms, will be admitted free into the general admission section for all remaining Tuesday and Sunday baseball home games. Adults, including coaches, and siblings accompanying a group, will pay the regular admission price.
