Southern Miss
Florida Atlantic
Baseball Wins Series at FAU with 14-3 Sunday Win
3/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - Walker Powell pitched 7 1/3 strong innings and Matt Wallner blasted a grand slam to lead No. 15 Southern Miss past Florida Atlantic 14-3 to win a key Conference USA series at the FAU Baseball Stadium Sunday.
The Golden Eagles (17-5 overall, 4-1 C-USA) won both its sixth-straight C-USA series and sixth consecutive league road series as they scored their most ever runs against the Owls in the contest.
Powell tossed career highs of 7 1/3 innings and seven strikeouts as he gave up all three runs on nine hits and no walks to get the victory and improve to 2-1 on the season.
"He (Powell) really stepped up big for us in a big series on the road this weekend," said Southern Miss coach Scott Berry.
Southern Miss scored all the runs they needed with a five-run, third inning. Mason Irby and LeeMarcus Boyd doubled in back-to-back at bats with one out. Boyd, who finished with three hits and two RBI, knocked in his first run with his two-base hit. The Golden Eagles then loaded the bases following a Matthew Guidry walk and an infield single by Luke Reynolds, before Matt Wallner cranked his first career grand slam to rightfield, his fifth homer of the year, to give the Golden Eagles the early lead.
Gabe Montenegro extended the lead to 6-0 with an RBI double of his own in the fourth, before Eric Rivera got the Owls (17-7, 3-3) on the board for the first time with a sacrifice fly.
Wallner then followed a lead-off double by Reynolds in the fifth with an RBI single and Cole Donaldson added a two-run single later in the frame to extend the lead to 9-1.
The Golden Eagles pushed the advantage to 10 runs with a pair of tallies in the eighth with one score coming on an Owl fielding error and the other on a FAU wild pitch.
FAU finished their scoring with two tallies in the eighth on three hits, chasing Powell from the game. Mason Strickland, though, came in to throw 1 2/3 scoreless frames to end the contest.
Southern Miss added three more runs in the ninth. After a pair of walks, Body drove in the first run with a single and Casey Maack completed the scoring with a two-run single of his own.
FAU starter Vince Coletti suffered the loss by allowing six runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings to fall to 1-2.
The Golden Eagles end their four-game road swing Tuesday, March 27, against in-state Ole Miss. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m., at Oxford-University Stadium.
