Ozzie Pratt rounded first, thinking he had just hit his first home run over the right field wall. Even the home run light show briefly played, but instead, the ball stayed in the stadium, and Pratt settled for a double.
Therefore, it was an even more welcoming site as Carson Paetow followed Pratt’s at-bat with a two-run homer that helped seal Southern Miss’ 7-5 win over Air Force on Monday night after having a frustrating weekend offensively.
“I’m going to be honest, I thought it was a home run too,” said Paetow on if he thought Pratt had homered. “The ball just disappeared. I thought it was a homer, but Ozzie is hot right now.
“I knew I just had to hit a ball on the right side of the field in the air or on the ground to get him to move so the batter behind me could hit him in,” Paetow said. “Honestly, I was just trying to pull the ball.”
The GAME
The Golden Eagles went down 1-0 in the second inning after starting pitcher Will Armistead hit the first two batters he faced. The right-hander managed to mitigate the damage as he gave up a runoff, a fielder’s choice.
Dalton McIntyre and Lawson Odom both delivered RBI singles in the third and fourth inning, respectively, to give USM a 2-1 lead.
Despite the hiccup, Armistead delivered a career-high nine strikeouts in five innings.
“He had a great mix of three pitches going,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “Will looked amazing. He has got good stuff. There are three pitches coming out of the same spot. When he is like that, he can keep them on ice skates pretty good.”
In the sixth inning, reliever Colby Allen surrendered a leadoff triple, which Air Force capitalized on with a fielder’s choice RBI. Two at-bats later, a throwing error by Ozzie Pratt allowed another to score and give the Falcons a 3-2 lead.
Luckily, Air Force’s pitching struggled at the bottom of the frame. Braden Luke tied the game with an RBI single. However, the Falcon’s pitching problems led to the bases being loaded, leading to Gabe Broadus drawing an RBI walk and Slade Wilks getting hit by a pitch to score a run and build a 5-3 lead.
“There was move them situations and scoring positions that we didn’t too well this weekend,” Paetow said. “That was one of the key things that our coaches were saying. Today, it was good to see us putting the pieces together, especially in big-time situations.”
After Paetow’s home run, Air Force added two more runs with a pair of RBI doubles in the eighth inning before closer Landen Payne finished the game off and picked up his first save of the season.
“We shouldn’t have lost Sunday,” Paetow said. “That’s baseball and is what it is. We talked about how our offense has way more potential and has not played to the caliber that we are capable of. We are just trying to slow the game down and relax and have fun.”
LINEUP SHAKE-UP
After the weekend, Ostrander wasn’t afraid to change the lineup after the Golden Eagles totaled just 14 hits in the opening weekend series. Southern Miss did put up seven hits against Air Force and recorded 34 walks through four games. Despite the lack of production, the Golden Eagles are striking out on average six times per game.
“We have done a great job of earning our freebies,” Ostrander said. “We have had a lot of traffic on the bases, and now we have to capitalize when that happens and get that big hit. You can’t let the moment get too big and slow the heart rate down. You have to trust the fundamentals of things. A base hit is all you need sometimes. Hopefully, that trend will get better.”
McIntyre was moved to center, with Nick Monistere sliding over to left field. Braden Luke started at first over Matthew Russo, while freshman Seth Smith started over Nolan Tucker at second base. Paetow also moved from the leadoff spot to sliding down to the sixth hole.
“It’s not a panic thing by any means,” Ostrander said. “This early, you want to see what guys can do and try to find the right formula. I don’t know if we have. It’s an ongoing process. You just have to get guys out there and let them compete and be ready for their time. That was the gist of that.”
Another issue for the lineup has been the lack of production from returners Monistere, Slade Wilks and Paetow, who are a combined 4-for-34. Notably, they also have combined for 13 walks and have been hit by six pitches.
“You play a lot of games, and you get a lot of ABs because it requires rhythm, so it takes some time,” Ostrander said. “They’ll have the opportunity to keep going out there and working at it every day and put confidence in them. We believe in them.”
PITCHING STAFF'S NUMBERS
The Southern Miss pitching staff allowed just 11 earned runs between the opening weekend against Marist and the Air Force game for a 2.75 ERA.
“I think they have been pretty gritty with the freebies,” Ostrander said. “They have been pilling up the strikeouts. We are going to go after hitters and pitch for contact. That’s kind of what we are and what we do. These guys are buying into it.”
The Golden Eagles struck out 49 and walked just seven batters over the first four games. The bullpen limited its opponents to a 1.43 ERA as they allowed 15 hits, four earned runs, five walks, 22 strikeouts and an opponent’s batting average of .187.
Southern Miss travels to face UNO on Wednesday, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m.
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