Southern Miss
21-8
Tulane
17-12
Monistere, Pratt Each Drive in Five to Lead Southern Miss to 13-6 Win over Tulane
4/1/2025 10:18:00 PM | Baseball
The Golden Eagles (21-8) rode an eight-run first inning to beat the Green Wave (17-12) for the seventh straight time.
Jake Cook, who had three hits in the game, led off the bottom of the first with a single. Monistere then followed with a home run that banged off the Coca-Cola sign in left center for his seventh of the year. Matthew Russo, who added a pair of hits, then singled. After two outs and a walk, Ozzie Pratt homered to left, a three-run shot, to add to the lead with his fourth of the season.
Joey Urban kept the inning alive with a single and then went to third on a double down the first base line by Lawson Odom. It was a three-hit night for Odom who was making his first start since March 8. Cook then knocked in the sixth run of the frame with an infield single, before Monistere added a two-run triple to end the eight-run first.
The eight runs in the opening inning were the most this season in the first frame by the Golden Eagles and marked the fourth time in 2025 that they had tallied that many runs in a stanza.
Matt Adams, who fanned eight over four innings, also allowed seven hits and two walks as Tulane got to him for three runs in the fourth on three hits, two walks and a hit batter.
Southern Miss added to its lead in the bottom of the inning to make the score 9-3 on a run-scoring walk by Pratt.
Tulane put up two more runs of their own in the sixth as they bunched together a two hit by pitches, two singles and a walk to cut the gap to 9-5.
Southern Miss, though, countered with two more runs in the bottom of the inning via an RBI groundout from Monistere and a run-scoring double from Russo. The Golden Eagles put together their final two runs in the eighth. Davis Gillespie belted a one-out solo homer down the left field line, his seventh, while Pratt finished the scoring with an RBI single.
Brooks Willoughby, the third of six Golden Eagle pitchers, gave up a hit and fanned one over 1 2/3 innings to get the victory and improve to 3-0.
Tulane starter Blaise Wilcenski lasted just two-thirds an inning and surrendered six runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts to suffer the loss and fall to 3-2.
Next up for the Golden Eagles has them traveling to Huntington, W.Va., to face Marshall in a Sun Belt Conference three-game set. It starts an eight-game road swing for the program. Friday's game start time is 5 p.m., CT.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Willoughby, Brooks (3-0)
L: Blaise Wilcenski (3-2)
Batting:
2B: Michael Lombardi 1
RBI: Jason Wachs 3 ; Matthias Haas 1 ; Hugh Pinkney 1 ; Tanner Chun 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Theo Bryant IV 1 ; Gavin Schulz 2 ; Hugh Pinkney 1 ; Tanner Chun 1 ; Kaikea Harrison 1
HBP: Jason Wachs 1 ; Connor Rasmussen 1 ; Kaikea Harrison 1
Batting:
2B: Cook, Jake 1 ; Russo, Matthew 1 ; Paetow, Carson 1 ; Barrett, Drey 1 ; Odom, Lawson 1
3B: Monistere, Nick 1
HR: Monistere, Nick 1 ; Gillespie, Davis 1 ; Pratt, Ozzie 1
RBI: Cook, Jake 1 ; Monistere, Nick 5 ; Russo, Matthew 1 ; Gillespie, Davis 1 ; Pratt, Ozzie 5
Base Running:
RUNS: Cook, Jake 3 ; Monistere, Nick 1 ; Russo, Matthew 2 ; Gillespie, Davis 1 ; Barrett, Drey 2 ; Pratt, Ozzie 1 ; Urban, Joey 1 ; Odom, Lawson 2
HBP: Monistere, Nick 1 ; Russo, Matthew 1 ; Gillespie, Davis 1
