University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
ODU Takes Series with 9-2 Sunday Victory
4/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - For the first time in two years, Southern Miss dropped a three-game baseball series at Pete Taylor Park.
Old Dominion registered 18 hits Sunday as the Monarchs put a 9-2 pounding on the No. 16 Golden Eagles before 2,834.
"We're at a point where we're not playing really well," said Southern Miss baseball coach Scott Berry after watching his team drop a weekend series for only the second time this season. "It's not anything mechanical or fundamental that you can fix. It's mental and it's about attitude.
"That's where we are. Either you accept losing, or you don't, and that's attitude."
After Southern Miss took Friday's Conference USA series opener, ODU took the final two games of the three-game set as the Golden Eagles dropped back-to-back games for only the third time this season.
"We did not match their intensity in any phase of the game," Berry said. "Not that we didn't try, but they sensed they had an opportunity to knock off the number one in the conference and the number sixteen (in the nation)...
"We didn't have an answer for them, their hitters. I don't care if it was a ball that was hit in the hole or off the wall, they put some really good swings on it and they found the holes when they needed it."
It was the first time USM lost a conference series since 2016's regular-season finale when the Golden Eagles were swept at FIU, May 19-21. It also marked the first time USM lost a baseball series at home since Florida Atlantic University took two of three from the Golden Eagles on April 17-18, 2015.
"We didn't play a good game," said Taylor Braley, who allowed four runs on 10 hits in six innings in the first weekend start of his three-year career as a Golden Eagle. "They wanted it more than we did and had more energy than we did.
"We've got a target on our back and everybody wants to beat us, and we just took it too lightly."
After taking a 1-0 in the first inning, ODU went up 4-0 in the fifth, when Zach Rutherford zipped a two-run double just inside the third bag with the bases loaded and Vinnie Pasquantino followed with a sacrifice fly.
Southern Miss pulled within 4-2 on LeeMarcus Boyd's run-scoring single in the fifth inning and Cole Donaldson's RBI-single in the sixth.
The Golden Eagles lost an opportunity to add to the sixth-inning rally, loading the bases with one out, but Boyd grounded into an inning-ending double play.
But on a day when the Monarchs roughed up five pitchers for the most hits allowed in a single game this season by the Southern Miss staff, it may not have mattered. The Golden Eagles simply could not stop the bleeding, as ODU added two more runs in the seventh and another three runs in the eighth.
Left-hander John Wilson (6-1) allowed two runs on four hits over five innings, as Southern Miss struggled to hit the Monarchs' left-handers Sunday.
Right-hander Craig Lopez allowed two singles in his 1 1/3 innings, while lefties Isaiah Nelson and Corey Klak followed and gave up just two walks while striking out one over a combined 2 2/3 innings.
Braley (3-2), who walked two and struck out four in his pitching stint, went 0-for-4 at the plate and did not reach base for the first time in the 41 games he has played this season.
Dylan Burdeaux walked once in five plate appearances to see his 18-game hitting streak snapped.
Donaldson two of the Golden Eagles' six hits, while Kyle Battle, Jared Young and Rutherford combined at the top of the ODU batting order for 10 hits and seven runs scored.
The Golden Eagles begin a four-game road swing with a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday visit with South Alabama. Southern Miss defeated the Jaguars 4-2 on March 28 in Hattiesburg.
