Southern Miss
Houston
Baseball Wins Second Straight Over Houston, 13-4
4/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 24, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss gave Todd McInnis the offensive support that he has been missing over his last few starts to propel the Golden Eagles to a 13-4 victory Saturday night at Pete Taylor Park.
"I think we are just loosening up and playing baseball now," head coach Scott Berry said. "We are certainly having a lot more fun right now."
Southern Miss (20-17) scored six runs in the third inning and turned the rest over to McInnis and freshman Jay Myrick on the bump. McInnis worked six solid innings allowing only one earned run on four hits while striking out five to pick up his third win of the season and move into a fourth place tie on the schools career win list at 22.
"McInnis has competed every time out for us this year but when we put up six runs in the third I think he was just able to take a breathe and pitch," Berry added.
Myrick closed out the final three frames allowing one run on three hits to earn his first career save.
At the plate nine different players accounted for the 15 hits, with Joey Archer and Taylor Walker tallying three hits a piece. Dillon Day had the big blow with a three-RBI double in the third while Walker and Tyler Koelling both hit two-run home runs in the fifth.
Southern Miss broke the game open in the bottom of the third inning with six two-out runs. Tyler Koelling singled and Houston pitcher Michael Goodnight walked three consecutive hitters, including Mark Ellis with the bases loaded for the first run of the inning.
Freshman Dillon Day cleared the loaded sacks with a double down the right field line, knocking in three runs. Joey Archer with a high-hop infield single and with runners on the corners Archer broke off first and stayed in a run down long enough for Day to scamper home on a double steal. Travis Graves lined the next pitch into left field, scoring Archer and putting Southern Miss up 6-0.
The Golden Eagle offense struck again in the bottom of the fifth as both Tyler Koelling and Taylor Walker hit two-run home runs to put Southern Miss up 10-0.
Houston scored their first runs of the game in the top of the sixth on a RBI single by Zack Presley that scored one run and Tyler Koelling misplayed the ball in right field allowing another run to score and Presley to advance to third, he would later score on a ground out.
Southern Miss answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases off Houston reliever James Conlee who was then replaced by Barry Laird. Laird's first pitch hit Travis Graves in the head to force in the first run of the frame. Koelling added a sacrifice fly to score the second run of the inning and Brunty plated the third run of the frame on a RBI groundout to make the score 13-3.
Houston added a single run in the top of the eighth on a RBI single by Joel Ansley.
Southern Miss will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon, with Ryan MacNamara toeing the rubber for the Golden Eagles. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
-southernmiss.com-
