Baseball Uses Pair of Wild Pitches to Rally Past MSU 7-6 in Nationally-Ranked Matchup

Tuesday, March 3

Pete Taylor Park

6 pm

Southern Miss

11-1

Mississippi State

11-2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mississippi State	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0	0	6	9	1
Southern Miss	3	1	0	1	0	0	2	0	X	7	7	0

Pete Taylor Park crowd celebrates win against Mississippi State

Baseball Uses Pair of Wild Pitches to Rally Past MSU 7-6 in Nationally-Ranked Matchup

3/3/2026 10:38:00 PM | Baseball

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – No. 10 Southern Miss rallied with a pair of runs on wild pitches in the seventh inning as they upended No. 4 Mississippi State 7-6 in front of 5,716 Tuesday night at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The Golden Eagles (11-1) won for the 11-straight game and will continue their five-game homestand Wednesday with a 6 p.m., contest against Nicholls. The Bulldogs (11-2) fell for the second-straight time and for the fifth consecutive contest at Pete Taylor Park.

With Southern Miss trailing 6-5 in the seventh, Matthew Russo singled to open the frame. Barrett then lined a double to right, moving Russo to third. MSU reliever Maddox Miller got Kyle Morrison to strike out, but the third strike was a wild pitch allowing Russo to score on the play to tie the game. Barrett then scored one batter later on another Miller wild pitch on a strikeout pitch.

Josh Och, who blew a save for the Golden Eagles during the top of the frame, then rebounded by pitching a scoreless eighth before Camden Clark worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to close out the game with no runs.

Southern Miss initially jumped out early with three runs in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Ben Higdon doubled on the first pitch he saw. After a groundout to move Higdon to third and a strikeout, Davis Gillespie walked before Drey Barrett deposited a Brendan Sweeney 1-1 pitch over the left center wall which went 450 feet for his second homer of the year.

Southern Miss extended the lead to 3-0 with a solo run in the second. After two outs, Higdon walked and Joey Urban hit a popup to short that was dropped by Ryder Woodson and the runner scored all the way from first on the play.

An opposite field solo home run by Seth Smith in the fourth, his first career in 149 Golden Eagle at bats, increased the lead to 4-0.

The Bulldogs, though, cut into the lead with three runs in the fifth. After getting two comebackers to the pitcher to open the frame, the Bulldogs put together three hits and a walk which included a two-run double from Noah Sullivan. Then, Reed Stallman singled to right, driving in Sullivan, but the inning ended when he was thrown out at second trying to take an extra base on his hit.

The Bulldogs took their lone lead with three more runs in the seventh. Stallman tied the game at 5-5 with a two-run single and Woodson knocked in the go-ahead run with a single of his own.

Och ended up throwing 1 2/3 innings and gave up no runs on two hits with two strikeouts to get the win and improve to 3-0, while Clark earned his fourth save. Miller (1-1) suffered the loss by allowing two runs on two hits over 2/3 of an inning.