Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com
Baseball Wins Twice to Advance to Monday Winner Take All Showdown with Miami
6/2/2025 12:15:00 AM | Baseball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – No. 16 national seed Southern Miss staved off elimination by defeating Columbia 8-1 and Miami 17-6 in the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field Sunday to advance to a winner take all Monday final.
The regional championship game will take place at 8:06 p.m., Monday, while the television network has not been announced at this time.
The Golden Eagles (47-15) improved to 15-3 in NCAA Regional elimination games since the 2019 season and their win total ties for second most in school history with the 2003 and 2022 squads.
Freshman left-hander Grayden Harris covered a season-high 6 1/3 games in his start in the opener against the Lions (30-19), as he surrendered a run on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 5-3. Landen Payne covered the final 2 2/3 and gave up just one hit and fanned one to earn his fifth save.
Ben Higdon's eighth-inning homer, his seventh of the season, broke open a 3-1 contest for the Golden Eagles as Jake Cook, Nick Monistere, Drey Barrett and Tucker Stockman each registered two hits in the affair.
Russo drove in the first run with a bases-loaded walk in the first. After Columbia tied the score on a Skye Selinsky run-scoring single, Southern Miss took the lead for good on an errant throw to the plate on a ground ball to first base in the sixth. A Stockman RBI groundout in the seventh increased the advantage to 3-1.
The Golden Eagles, the designated visiting team, then added two more runs in the ninth on an RBI single by Lawson Odom and a double play groundout by Monistere.
Lion starter Joe Sheets gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits and five walks with four strikeouts to suffer the loss and fall to a 3-4.
In the nightcap, the Golden Eagles sent 12 men to the plate in the top of the first and scored a season-best high of nine runs on seven hits to jump out big on Miami.
Joey Urban homered twice and drove in five runs as the Golden Eagles belted four home runs to slug their way past the Hurricanes (33-25). Urban's first homer, a three-run shot, capped the nine-run first.
Matthew Russo added a solo shot, his 18th, to open the second and make the score 10-0.
The Hurricanes plated their only runs with a solo tally by Tanner Smith with his fifth homer of the year in the second, and then added four more runs in the fifth on four hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.
Southern Miss added to its lead with Urban two-run homer in the seventh, his ninth, an eighth inning sacrifice fly in the eighth, before adding four more runs in the ninth and a Higdon sacrifice fly and a three-run homer by Stockman, his sixth, to complete the Golden Eagles's scoring.
Miami added its final run in the eighth on a Ty Long throwing error.
Reliever Camden Sunstrom, third of three Southern Miss hurlers, tossed the final 4 2/3 and limited the Hurricanes to an unearned run on four hits and two walks with a strikeout to earn the win and improve to 3-0. Miami starter Tate DeRias allowed nine runs on seven hits and a walk over two-thirds of an inning to suffer the loss and fall to 2-3.
The regional championship game will take place at 8:06 p.m., Monday, while the television network has not been announced at this time.
The Golden Eagles (47-15) improved to 15-3 in NCAA Regional elimination games since the 2019 season and their win total ties for second most in school history with the 2003 and 2022 squads.
Freshman left-hander Grayden Harris covered a season-high 6 1/3 games in his start in the opener against the Lions (30-19), as he surrendered a run on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 5-3. Landen Payne covered the final 2 2/3 and gave up just one hit and fanned one to earn his fifth save.
Ben Higdon's eighth-inning homer, his seventh of the season, broke open a 3-1 contest for the Golden Eagles as Jake Cook, Nick Monistere, Drey Barrett and Tucker Stockman each registered two hits in the affair.
Russo drove in the first run with a bases-loaded walk in the first. After Columbia tied the score on a Skye Selinsky run-scoring single, Southern Miss took the lead for good on an errant throw to the plate on a ground ball to first base in the sixth. A Stockman RBI groundout in the seventh increased the advantage to 3-1.
The Golden Eagles, the designated visiting team, then added two more runs in the ninth on an RBI single by Lawson Odom and a double play groundout by Monistere.
Lion starter Joe Sheets gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits and five walks with four strikeouts to suffer the loss and fall to a 3-4.
In the nightcap, the Golden Eagles sent 12 men to the plate in the top of the first and scored a season-best high of nine runs on seven hits to jump out big on Miami.
Joey Urban homered twice and drove in five runs as the Golden Eagles belted four home runs to slug their way past the Hurricanes (33-25). Urban's first homer, a three-run shot, capped the nine-run first.
Matthew Russo added a solo shot, his 18th, to open the second and make the score 10-0.
The Hurricanes plated their only runs with a solo tally by Tanner Smith with his fifth homer of the year in the second, and then added four more runs in the fifth on four hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.
Southern Miss added to its lead with Urban two-run homer in the seventh, his ninth, an eighth inning sacrifice fly in the eighth, before adding four more runs in the ninth and a Higdon sacrifice fly and a three-run homer by Stockman, his sixth, to complete the Golden Eagles's scoring.
Miami added its final run in the eighth on a Ty Long throwing error.
Reliever Camden Sunstrom, third of three Southern Miss hurlers, tossed the final 4 2/3 and limited the Hurricanes to an unearned run on four hits and two walks with a strikeout to earn the win and improve to 3-0. Miami starter Tate DeRias allowed nine runs on seven hits and a walk over two-thirds of an inning to suffer the loss and fall to 2-3.
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