University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Houston Edges Southern Miss, 6-5
5/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Houston Edges Southern Miss, 6-5
HOUSTON, Texas ? Houston scored one run in the sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie and then rode the arm of closer Ryan Wagner for the final three innings en route to a 6-5 victory over Southern Miss at Cougar Field on Friday night.
The Houston (31-24, 18-11 C-USA) pitching duo of starter Garrett Mock and closer Ryan Wagner struck out 15 Southern Miss batters and held the Golden Eagles (40-14, 22-7 Conference USA) to four hits for the game. Houston scored six runs on 11 hits, led by Matt Farrington?s three hits and two hits each by Stuart Musselwhite and Michael Bourn.
In the sixth inning, Houston?s Matt Farrington doubled to right field, moved to third on Sam Mitchell?s sacrifice bunt to the pitcher and then scored on Stuart Musselwhite?s double to right center, giving the Cougars the go ahead run.
Mock (5-3) earned his fifth win of the season, pitching six innings, giving up five runs on four hits, walking two and striking out seven. Wagner collected his 13th save of the season, pitching the final three innings, walking three and striking out eight.
Anthony DeWitt (8-2) dropped his second decision of the season, pitching 5.1 innings, giving up six runs, three earned, on 10 hits and striking out four. Ray Antonelli came on in relief in the sixth inning, pitching 1.2 innings, striking out two before Daniel Best come on in the eighth inning and finished the game, giving up only one hit.
Southern Miss was led by Jeff Cook?s two hits in four at bats and scored two runs. With the two runs, Cook passed Scotty Jurich (1989-91) for the school?s career runs scored record and now has 189 for his career.
Southern Miss took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. Marc Maddox walked, before Brad Willcutt hit a two-out double to left center to drive in Maddox. Houston took a 2-1 lead in the second inning, after Cole Bruce hit a one-out single to right center, before Farrington hit a homer over the left field wall.
The Golden Eagles tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning. Cook reaches on an infield single to short, Willcutt walked and both moved to second and third on King?s ground out to second. Griff Israel flew out to center, plating Cook from third.
The Cougars scored three unearned runs in the fifth inning, taking a 5-2 lead. Musselwhite reached on a throwing error by Southern Miss third baseman Beau Griffin. Musselwhite moved to third on a sacrifice ground out to the pitcher. Bourn hit a grounder to second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir, who threw the ball home to retire Musselwhite. Travis Tully doubled down the right field line, plating Bourn from first. Hyung Cho singled through the right side, and Thanos Papavasilou doubled to right center, scoring Tully and Cho.
Southern Miss tied the game in the sixth inning. Maddox was hit by a pitch, and Cook doubled to right center, before Clint King hit his 19th home run of the season. The Golden Eagles didn?t collect a hit after the home run by King in the sixth.
The two teams play the final game of the three-game series at 1 p.m., on Saturday at Cougar field. A Southern Miss win or a TCU loss will give Southern Miss the outright Conference USA championship and the No.1 seed. If Southern Miss loses and TCU wins, both schools would be co-champions. TCU would earn the No. 1 seed because they would win the tie-breaker.
