Southern Miss
Marshall
Baseball Wins Sixth Straight With 4-2 Win Over Marshall
4/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 3, 2009
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team won their sixth consecutive game with a 4-2 victory over Marshall at Pete Taylor Park Friday evening.
The Golden Eagles (19-9, 5-2 CUSA) used a strong pitching performance from starter JR Ballinger, who moved to 3-0 on the season, and a three-run home run from Joey Archer to defeat the Herd.
"This was a touch, hard-fought Friday night victory," head coach Corky Palmer said. "I thought both teams played well tonight fortunately we were able to hold on to get the win. Marshall is a very competitive team and this will be a tough series."
For Southern Miss Taylor Walker, James Ewing and Tyler Koelling each had two hits a piece with Walker scoring two runs as well to pace the offense.
Corey Stevens ripped a single up the middle in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to 15 games as well.
JR Ballanger had one of his better outings in his career, working 5.2 innings allowing two runs and five hits while striking out a career high eight batters.
Collin Cargill picked up his fourth save of the season working 1.2 scoreless innings while allowing only two hits and leaving the tying run at the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings.
Southern Miss began the scoring in the top of the first as Taylor Walker led off the inning with soft single to centerfield and came around to score on James Ewing's RBI single to put Southern Miss on top 1-0.
Southern Miss continued to pour on the runs with two outs, as they struck for three two-out runs in the bottom of the third. Taylor Walker collected his second hit of the game with a single up the middle and Bo Davis singled to put two runners on base for Joey Archer, who delivered his fifth home run of the season, a three-run shot over the left field wall to put Southern Miss up 4-0 after three innings.
Marshall cracked the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning as Adam Yeager doubled down the left-field line and scored on a RBI single by Ben Jurevicius. Thor Meeks added a RBI single to score Jurevicius and cut the Southern Miss lead in half at 4-2.
Southern Miss had a few chances to add to their lead later in the game but Marshall reliever Arik Sikula held the Golden Eagle offense in check
The two teams will return to action tomorrow for game two of the three game set. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. at "The Pete."
-southernmiss.com-
