University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Western Kentucky
Baseball Splits with WKU Saturday Afternoon at The Pete
4/7/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - After No. 12 Southern Miss closed out a suspended game with an 8-2 victory, WKU got six strong innings from second game starter Ryan Thurston to even the Conference USA series with a 7-1 victory at Pete Taylor Park Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles (21-9 overall, 7-3 in C-USA) looks to win its eight-straight league series Sunday when the two teams play the deciding game of the set at 1 p.m.
The HIlltoppers (15-15, 5-6) got two RBIs each from Jacob Rhinesmith, Colie Currie and Richard Constantine in the second contest as the visitors snapped a nine-game losing streak to Southern Miss.
WKU scored a solo run in the first on Constantine RBI single and then jumped out to a big lead with a four-run third.
Currie delivered the big blow with a two-run single, followed by a run off a USM error and another run-scoring single from Luke Brown.
Rhinesmith capped the scoring off of Golden Eagle starter Stevie Powers (2-1) with a two-run homer to rightfield for his 10th of the year. Powers, who was tagged with the loss, allowed seven runs on nine hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over five innings to suffer the defeat.
Meanwhile, Thurston gave up just one run - on a sixth-inning Casey Maack RBI single - by scattering six hits and four walks to go along with seven strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 3-4.
In the suspended game with the Golden Eagles leading 7-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Casey Maack reached on a fielding error by the WKU pitcher on the first pitch of the restart and Mason Irby followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the Golden Eagles' advantage.
Keller Bradford then pitched around a pair of singles in the ninth to complete the Golden Eagle victory.
USM reliever Adam Jackson (1-0) pitched four strong frames and allowed two runs on three hits and a walk with a strikeout to earn the victory, while WKU starter Evan Acosta (2-2) suffered the loss by giving up two unearned runs on four hits and three walks with no strikeouts over 3 2/3.
