University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Completes Sweep With 8-1 Win
5/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Southern Miss Completes Sweep With 8-1 Win
HATTIESBURG, Miss. ? Southern Miss scored runs in three innings to complete a three-game sweep over South Florida with an 8-1 win Sunday, at Pete Taylor Park. The Golden Eagles ? who had 13 hits in the game ? improved to 39-13 overall and 21-6 in Conference USA play with the win, while the Bulls fell to 28-23 and 12-13.
?This was another good win for us, and we played well,? Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer said. ?Stephen Castleman set the tone early, and Brad Willcutt?s home run stretched it. We pitched well all weekend, and that was good to see.?
It was the 11th series win ? eighth in the conference ? for the league-leading Golden Eagles this season, with just a three-game tilt at Houston (May 15-17) remaining before the Conference USA Tournament in New Orleans (May 21-25).
?We have slain a lot of teams this season, and we have one more big one next week,? Palmer said. ?We just wanted to be in a position to win the conference in the last weekend. So, now we will see what happens.?
The game was the final home appearance for five Southern Miss seniors, including Matt Benson, Stephen Castleman, Jeff Cook, Griff Israel and manager Stephen Gwozdz.
Castleman (6-2) earned the win after allowing one run on five hits with seven strikeouts in six innings of work.
Southern Miss pushed one across early as Cook rounded the bases on Clint King?s RBI-double to right field. On the play, Brad Willcutt tried to leg out another score, but the relay throw was in time to get the final out of the inning.
The Golden Eagles got that run back in the third inning however, after Willcutt blasted a three-run bomb over the left field wall to score Beau Griffin and Marc Maddox and put Southern Miss ahead, 4-0.
South Florida notched its run in the top of the fifth inning when Jeff Baisley hit a hard grounder to short to score Mike Cunningham. In the frame, the Bulls managed to put two runners in scoring position with one out, but Castleman retired the next two batters on strikes to end the threat.
But the offensive streak continued for Southern Miss with four runs on four hits and one Bull error in the fifth inning. Willcutt walked and advanced to second on an error by the second baseman. The runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Israel and Willcutt scored on a wild pitch. King came around on Jarrett Hoffpauir?s double to left field, Jason Lowery singled and Griffin pushed a run across with a sacrifice bunt. Shepherd followed with another single to plate Lowery for the final run of the inning.
The offensive rally would end there, though, as both teams failed to get a run across in the final four innings.
Six different batters finished with multiple hits for the Golden Eagles, with Willcutt leading the way with two hits and three RBIs. Shepherd, Maddox, Hoffpauir and Lowery also had two hits each.
Ray Antonelli also threw two innings for Southern Miss, striking out two and walking one. Austin Tubb threw the final frame and walked one batter.
For South Florida, Mike Choquette went 2-for-4. Chris Delaney (2-2) took the loss, giving up four runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings of work. Matt Ingram, Tim Mattison, Steve Palinkas and Joey Livingston combined to throw the final few innings.
