Southern Miss
Northwestern State
Baseball Falls in Series Finale
2/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Northwestern State scored six runs in the seventh inning, and held on to win 7-5, avoiding the swept by the No. 21 ranked Golden Eagles in the three-game weekend series.
"We had the opportunities offensively to put up the big inning, but we did not," head coach Scott Berry said. "To their credit they held us and we gave up the one big inning in the seventh and that was the difference."
On the afternoon the Golden Eagles used four pitchers, all making their first career appearances.
True freshman Geoffrey Thomas started the game because the scheduled starting pitcher, senior Jeff Stanley, came down a stomach virus. Thomas worked 5.2 innings allowing only one run on four hits is his collegiate debut.
True freshman Dillon Day relived Thomas in the sixth and needed only three pitches to record a strikeout and get out of the inning. The seventh inning, however, was a different story. Day allowed three hits and walked two, including a bases loaded walk.
He left the game with the bases full and junior college transfer Ryan MacNamara hit a batter and gave up the big hit, a bases loaded triple off the centerfield wall by Colin Bear, to put the Demons ahead 7-5.
Redshirt freshman Paxton King pitched the final two innings without allowing a hit and striking out one.
Berry knew with Stanley sick he had to turn to his new arms.
"They are young and it was all four guys first time out, but we had to get them in the mix," Berry said. "I thought Geoffrey (Thomas) did a great job competing today. He got himself into some trouble but he worked his way out of it.
"When you have a lot of youth like we do on the mound you are going to have some growing pains and I think that is what we saw today," Berry added.
Joey Archer led the offensive charge today with three hits and two RBI while Taylor Walker was the only other player with multiple hits, he had two and a RBI.
In the bottom of the first, the Demon defense gave the Southern Miss their first run as Kameron Brunty hit a ground ball that could have been a double play, but first baseman Will Watson kicked the ball into foul territory to allow Marc Bourgeois to score from second for a 1-0 lead.
Northwestern State tied the game in the top of the second as Trevor Geist hit the first pitch over the left field wall.
Southern Miss answered with a run in the bottom of the second as Anthony Doss singled and came around to score on Taylor Walker's fielders choice to make the score 2-1.
The Demons threatened in the top of the fourth to take their first lead of the series but Golden Eagle center fielder Justin Diliberto made a spectacular diving catch on a sure two-RBI single to preserve the Golden Eagle lead at 2-1.
Southern Miss added two runs in the bottom of the fourth on Archer's two-out, two-RBI double for a 4-1 lead.
Anthony Doss completed the Golden Eagle scoring in the fifth with a sacrifice fly.
Southern Miss returns to action on Wednesday as they host Mississippi Valley State.
-southernmiss.com-
