KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With the season on the line, Southern Miss put together one of its most dominant performances as the Golden Eagles cruised to a 15-3 victory over Indiana to advance to the Knoxville Regional final on Sunday.
Now, the long-awaited rematch between Southern Miss and Tennessee will finally happen. This will also mark the fifth straight season that the Golden Eagles have reached an NCAA Regional final.
Against Indiana (33-26-1), Southern Miss jumped out to a 15-0 lead by the fifth inning. The Golden Eagles put up five runs in the first inning, six in the third and four more runs in the fourth.
The big lead allowed starting pitcher Colby Allen to cover a career-high of seven innings, which allowed Southern Miss to use only one arm out of the bullpen.
“You can breathe,” said Allen of how the big lead helped his performance. “You go out there in the first inning and you have five run,s then you can kind of breathe a little bit and just relax.
“I knew me and Niko (Mazza) were going to have to go a long time to give us a chance in the bullpen. Now we pretty much have our bullpen ready to go so it’s going to be a dogfight for the next two games for us.”
By the time of the fifth inning, every member of the Golden Eagles’ lineup had reached base at least twice. Slade Wilks, who was 3-for-5 with three RBI, also extended his hitting streak to 35 straight games.
Six Golden Eagles finished with multiple RBIs, with Wilks, Ozzie Pratt, and Matthew Russo each having three RBIs a piece.
In Allen’s outing, he struck out eight batters, walked and allowed one run off four hits. His lone blemish was a solo home run in the fifth inning. Reliever Cole Boswell finished the game, making him only the second arm to be used out of USM’s bullpen.
“I’ve got all the world of confidence in those boys,” said Allen of the rest of the bullpen. “They have confidence in me, and I have confidence in them. They are about to go out there and let Tennessee have it.”
Southern Miss will now face Tennessee tonight at 6 p.m. ET.
“We are not going to try and make it too big of a game,” Allen said. “I think if you make it too big of a game, then it kind of gets to your mindset a little bit. It’s just one game at a time, no matter who we play.”
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