Emotions ran high as Southern Miss opened the Conference USA tournament with a 4-3 win over UAB on Wednesday night.
Between the Golden Eagles' pitching staff, lineup and fans; passion fueled the game as the two teams had numerous exchanges that led to umpires having to intervene.
"I thought the umpires did a great job," Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. "They weren't trying to throw anybody out. I thought they used commonplace in some of their judgments because there were a couple of times that they could have started chucking guys."
It all began in an exchange between Southern Miss' Dustin Dickerson and UAB catcher Henry Hunter. As Dickerson struck out, an exchange occurred between Henry and the Blazers' starting pitcher Jackson Reynolds.
"In Birmingham, we played a clean series, so I don't know what led up to it," said Carson Paetow, who was 1-for-4 and scored a run. "The pitcher, just kind of went after Dustin and Dustin, is not one to back down, that's for sure. He said some choice words, and he played the rest of the game, trying to keep his mouth shut.
"It definitely fired us up. We had to have controlled energy. We didn't want to get too involved with the trash talk because that could take us away from the true goal, which is to win. We didn't want to make it too much of a bush-league game. We wanted to keep our eyes focused on the prize."
Things continued to simmer in the second inning as Hunter stepped into the batter's box with one out. On the first pitch, Hunter took a strike which led to an eruption from the fan base.
"Hearing the crowd and everybody cheering is unreal," Hall said. "It gives you that adrenaline that I've never felt in my life. It fuels me out there.
"It's a late-game, and just the fact that everybody was out here was crazy to think that they are out here investing, hear them cheering and getting on the other team because it was getting personal. We loved it. We liked every bit of it."
Hunter then went down swinging, the first of four strikeouts during the night, three of which would be by Hall's doing.
UAB took the lead in the second inning after a throwing error by Danny Lynch allowed a runner to score from first and take a 1-0 lead. Southern Miss got the run back in the bottom of the frame after Slade Wilks hit an infield single, which led to a UAB committing a throwing error to score Christopher Sargent and tie the game at 1-1.
UAB then retook the lead in the fourth inning after Christian Hall hit a solo home run to left field. It was then in then in the bottom of the fourth inning that the emotions began to erupt. Danny Lynch led the inning off with a single, with Paetow following with a one-out single. Blake Johnson then hit an RBI sac fly to score Lynch and put Paetow at third.
Reynolds called for a balk, which was aided by Paetow's doing on the base path. Reynolds quickly yelled his displeasure to the umpires as Paetow headed to home. Henry then tried to prevent Paetow from touching home plate, which led to the umpires again having to deescalate another argument at home plate.
"I was just trying to score," Paetow said. "The catcher, just kind of, got in my way. I don't know what he wanted from me.
"We just exchanged a few words. Some stuff was said that probably shouldn't have been said. That's baseball and part of it. We just had to keep our chirping down in the dugout. We didn't want to get put out over some words that were exchanged, so we had to contain ourselves there."
Eventually, UAB's coach Casey Dunn filtered the argument but was ejected from the game. Despite the antics, the Blazers tied the game with Josh Sears hitting a solo home run to tie the game at 3-3.
"I left a changeup up on (the first home run), and so they made me pay for my mistake," Hall said. "The other one was a 2-0 count, and I threw a fastball, and that's what he was sitting on. He made that hurt as well. Solo homers can't kill you, so that's kind of what we want if we have any homers given up."
Southern Miss again responded as Wilks hit a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to give USM its lead.
"I was just trying to battle," said Wilks, who was 2-for-4. "It was a slider down and in. I thought I got that one for sure. I knew it was gone off the bat."
With Wilks' home run, the 2022 Southern Miss lineup has five hitters that have at least 10 home runs, which is the first time since 1998. This year's group includes Christopher Sargent (20), Will McGillis (15), Carson Paetow (13), Reece Ewing (10) and Wilks (10).
The 1998 team, which hit 77 homers that year, group featured Jeremy Schied (16), Scott Cheek (13), Brady Mills (12), Cliff Wren (12) and Jeremy Albritton (11).
"I think it goes to show how deep we are as an offense," Wilks said. "There is power one through nine. I feel like anybody can leave the yard at any given time."
After the fifth inning, the Golden Eagles' pitching staff took control. In Hall's outing, he threw 6.1 innings, struck out 10 batters, walked one and allowed two earned runs off six his.
Relief pitchers Dalton Rogers and Landon Harper the combined to allow no hits, strike out five batters and walk one. It was the 15th time this season that the Golden Eagles had 14 or more strikeouts.
Southern Miss will play the winner of Florida Atlantic and UTSA on Friday at 10 a.m.
