Gillespie Drives in Five to Lead Baseball in 8-4 SBC Opening Win over Marshall

Friday, March 15

Pete Taylor Park

7 p.m.

Southern Miss

12-6, 1-0

Marshall

6-11, 0-1

Marshall

Southern Miss

Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com

Gillespie Drives in Five to Lead Baseball in 8-4 SBC Opening Win over Marshall

3/15/2024 10:28:00 PM | Baseball

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Davis Gillespie collected three hits and drove in five runs to lead Southern Miss to an 8-4 victory over Marshall in both teams' Sun Belt Conference opener Friday night at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

In a game that started an hour late due to earlier bad weather in the area, the Golden Eagles (12-6, 1-0 SBC) welcomed the Thundering Herd to Hattiesburg for the first time since 2019, when both teams were members of Conference USA. Southern Miss won for the fourth time over the last five games. It also improved the school to 18-9 in league openers since 1996.

Gillespie helped Southern Miss continue its early first-inning scoring habits as they now have scored 29 runs in the opening frame and plated at least one run in the first in 11 of 18 games.

Dalton McIntyre led off the first with a fly ball to the Marshall center fielder who lost the ball in the lights and aided the leadoff hitter in extending his current hitting streak to a team-best tying 10 games with a triple. Nick Monistere then ripped a single up the middle to score the game's first run, before Gillespie collected a two-out, two-run opposite field double to right to make the score 3-0.

After giving up a pair of runs on a two-run double by Gio Ferraro in the third, the Golden Eagles extended the lead again with a Carson Paetow sacrifice fly in the bottom of the frame.

McIntyre continued his hitting with an RBI double in the fourth, before Gillespie laced a two-run opposite field homer to right for his second blast an inning later.

Up 7-2, Marshall (6-11, 0-1) got a solo home run from Elijah Vogelsong, his third of the year, before a second run was added on an Owen Ayers RBI groundout to third in the seventh. Southern Miss added the final tally of the game in the bottom of the stanza on an RBI single from Gillespie.

Gillespie tied a season-high with two other Golden Eagles with his five RBI while also collecting his second, three-hit game of the season.

The Golden Eagles enjoyed 11 hits in the game, as Slade Wilks collected a single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games as well.

Niko Mazza allowed four runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings with three walks and a season-high 10 strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 4-0. Kros Sivley threw the final 2 2/3 and gave up no runs on a couple of hits with a walk and three strikeouts to earn his second save.

Marshall starter Drew Harlow gave up seven runs (six earned) on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts over five innings to suffer the loss and fall to 2-3.

The two teams continue the series with a 2 p.m., Saturday contest.