Late Rally Falls Short as Baseball Drops 10-8 Decision at ODU Friday

Friday, April 3

Norfolk, Va.

2 pm CT

Southern Miss

22-9, 6-5

Old Dominion

14-16, 4-7

Southern Miss

Old Dominion

Joey Urban makes contact with one before his Homerun

Late Rally Falls Short as Baseball Drops 10-8 Decision at ODU Friday

4/3/2026 6:06:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. – No. 8 Southern Miss scored five times in the ninth, but it was not enough as the Golden Eagles fell to Old Dominion 10-8 Friday afternoon at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex which evened a Sun Belt Conference series.

The Golden Eagles (22-9 overall, 6-5 Sun Belt) will look to win its third-straight SBC series Saturday when the teams complete the set with an 11 a.m. CT contest.

Southern Miss saw two leads vanish in the contest and were tied 3-3 before ODU (14-16, 4-7) broke open the game with a six-run, sixth inning. The Golden Eagles were then down 10-3 to open the ninth.

After an out to open the ninth, the Golden Eagles then collected a walk and had hit batters hit to load the bases. An RBI single by Seth Smith, who had two hits in the contest, started the ninth inning scoring rally. Kyle Morrison then grounded out, scoring a second run, before Davis Gillespie – who reached base five times that also included a single and three walks – reached on a fielding error to score a third run. Matthew Russo and Ben Higdon each followed with RBI singles before William Tonsmeire grounded out to first to end the contest.

The Monarchs took the lead for good in the sixth as they sent 10 men to the plate. After an out, ODU then went single, lineout and single to put two runners on against Golden Eagle starter Camden Sunstrom. Southern Miss went to the bullpen for Colby Allen, who gave up a walk to load the bases. He then walked the next batter to give ODU a 4-3 lead before Efrain Morales drove in two more runs with a single. The Monarchs finished their scoring in the inning with a three-run homer by Zach Leite, who collected his fifth blast of the year.

Sunstrom went 5 2/3 innings to suffer the loss and fall to 2-2. He gave up five runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

Joey Urban, who had three hits for Southern Miss, led off the game with a home run for his ninth of the year. He was the first Golden Eagle to open a game with a home run since Matthew Etzel did it at Coastal Carolina on April 23, 2023.

After ODU took their first lead with a second inning two-run single from Will Johnson, Southern Miss retook the lead for the final time with a pair of runs coming via RBI groundouts from both Higdon and Drey Barrett in the fourth. Macaddin Dye tied the game in the fourth with a two-out solo home run. It was his fourth this year.

ODU reliever Ben Tanton got the win on the strength of 1 2/3 innings, giving up no runs on two hits with a walk and a strikeout to improve to 3-0.