Southern Miss
Middle Tennessee State
Baseball Opens Middle Tennessee Series Friday with 9-1 Win
4/20/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Stevie Powers turned in a second, consecutive gem of a Friday night pitching performance and 13th-ranked Southern Miss jumped to an early six-run lead on its way to a 9-1 Conference USA victory over Middle Tennessee at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.
Matt Wallner hit his 11th home run of the season and Daniel Keating had three hits, including a three-run triple, in his first game at the plate since April 1 as Southern Miss (26-11, 11-4 C-USA) won its third consecutive game.
Powers (3-1), who pitched the first complete game of his career last weekend at FIU, went eight innings Friday, allowing one run on five hits. Powers walked only one and struck out a career-high 12 batters. It was Powers' third game of the season with at least 10 strikeouts.
MT (20-18-1, 6-9-1), which lost for the first time in four games, managed just seven hits against Powers and reliever Keller Bradford, including doubles by Myles Christian and Aaron Aucker and two singles by Austin Dennis.
But the Blue Raiders never managed more than two baserunners in any one inning and only four men reach scoring position.
The Golden Eagles had 12 hits against Wyrick (1-3) and reliever Grant Williams, giving USM at least 10 hits in its last four games.
With the expectation of inclement weather Sunday, the teams will wrap up the series Saturday with a doubleheader.
The first game will start at 1:30 p.m., 30 minutes earlier than the originally-scheduled 2 p.m. start. The second game will begin about 45 minutes at the conclusion of the opener.
Southern Miss loaded the bases with one out in the first inning on two walks sandwiched around a single by Luke Reynolds. Hunter Slater struck out for the second out, but Keating hit a fly to shallow right went for a triple. Keating then scored on an errant throw to put Southern Miss up 4-0.
In the second inning, the Golden Eagles loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of walks in between LeeMarcus Boyd's infield single. Reynolds' walked to force in a run and Boyd scored on a wild pitch for a 6-0 lead.
MT touched up Powers for its only run in the fifth. Drew Hufff drew Powers' lone walk of the night with two outs and Christian followed with a two-run double into the left-center field gap.
The Golden Eagles tacked on two runs in the bottom of the inning on Boyd's sacrifice fly and Matthew Guidry's run-scoring single.
Wallner led off the sixth inning with a first-pitch shot over the fence in right-center for the 30th home run of his career. Wallner has hit double-digit home runs in his first two seasons as a Golden Eagle.
