According to the final stat line Southern Miss shouldn’t have won the series-opener against James Madison. The Golden Eagles were outhit and committed more errors than JMU, and yet somehow, USM came away with a 7-6 win over the Dukes.
For both sides, the difference in the game was timely hitting.
“I think (the difference) was momentum swings,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “There were a lot of big moments. We played just well enough to come out with a win. When you look at the numbers, it doesn’t seem like we should have won, but that’s how baseball sometimes plays out.”
In total, JMU outhit the Golden Eagles 15-9, while USM committed three errors to the Dukes’ one.
Southern Miss (20-12, 8-5 Sun Belt) jumped out to a 4-run lead by the end of the second inning.
After JMU (20-13, 5-6) got on the board with an RBI single in the first inning, the Golden Eagles plated three runs in the bottom of the frame after Danny Lynch hit a 2-run double with two outs, and Rodrigo Montenegro followed with an RBI single. Then in the second, Dustin Dickerson hit an RBI double, with Christopher Sargent driving in a run with an RBI single one at-bat later.
The Dukes continued to give Hall problems in the fourth inning, as the junior right-hander gave up a pair of singles to open the inning. After a sac bunt, a fielder’s choice scored the first of three runs in the inning. JMU then singled in three straight at-bats, which narrowed the score to 5-4. Hall managed to mitigate the damage as the Dukes left the bases loaded.
Sargent shifted momentum back in USM’s favor as he pushed the lead to 6-4 with a solo home run.
“I got down on the count, and I just thought I needed to shorten things up,” said Sargent, who was 2-for-4. “On the pitch, before he threw a changeup, and I fouled it off. It was right down the middle, and I was upset at myself. I took a breather, and then the next pitch he threw it in the same exact spot, and I didn’t miss it. I was happy to get my swing off.
“Coming into it, we knew they were going to be scrappy, and they have lived up to it. It’s going to be a fight all weekend long.”
But in the sixth inning, James Madison maintained the pressure on Hall with the Dukes loading the bases and forcing Hall to exit after having thrown 110 pitches. Hall gave up a career-high of 12 hits, allowed three earned runs, struck out four batters, walked one, and most importantly, stranded six of the 11 JMU runners left on base.
Reliever Kros Sivley almost got out of the inning unscathed as the left-hander almost induced a doubleheader, but a video replay overturned the out at first base, which scored a run for JMU.
“When Kros comes in, it is lights out,” Sargent said. “We know he is going to throw strikes. There is something about him that is deceptive. It’s his arm slot or something. He gets hitters off balance. While we were in the field, we were ready to make a play, but we knew he is going to throw strikes. That’s the biggest thing. We have the most confidence in him.”
After that, Sivley, rolled through the Dukes’ lineup until the top of the ninth inning. With two outs, the left-hander gave up just his second walk of the season and back-to-back singles, which scored a run for James Madison. Luckily Justin Storm entered the game and struck out the final batter to pick up his fourth save of the season.
“I didn’t pay much attention to the hits that (Tanner) gave up,” Sivley said. “They just had a good game plan against them. I wasn’t really too scared about it because all I had to get was a rollover or a double play, and we were out of it. I lucked out pretty good.
“I wanted to finish it, but I had faith in Storm that he could throw one pitch and get them out.”
Southern Miss has moved the first pitch of Saturday’s game to 11 a.m. in anticipation of bad weather in the Hattiesburg area.
“If we can’t get it started and play a sufficient amount of time, then we probably won’t start it,” Berry said. “The weather service gave us a window (at 11 a.m.), and they gave us a window in the afternoon around 5 to 6 p.m. It’s a real gamble if that thing keeps lingering into the night, especially with an 11:30 a.m. start on Sunday, and they have a flight out of Jackson at seven o’clock on Sunday night. Time is not on our side, and we need to keep it on our side. I made the decision to start it at 11 o’clock, and if we had to adjust from there, then that’s what we’ll do.”
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