PEARL – Tanner Hall strutted off the pitcher's mound while pumping his chest to end the sixth inning.
That's because just a moment earlier, pitching coach Christian Ostrander visited the mound after Hall just walked and hit a batter to load the bases. Sure enough, Hall responded and struck out MSU's next batter to end the jam.
"(Ostrander) came to me and said, 'Go get this guy. You want it, right?'" Hall said. "I had pretty good confidence in making a pitch to get us out of the situation. I ended up doing my job."
However, Hall didn't stop there as he went back out in seventh and retired the Bulldogs in order. The sophomore finished the night with a 13-strikeout performance, which propelled Southern Miss to a 7-1 win over ninth-ranked Mississippi State on Wednesday night at Trustmark Park.
"Tanner Hall, I don't know what else you can say about him in his performance tonight," Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. "I thought the key was in the sixth inning when we were up 6-0. Oz wanted to let him finish it. I was in agreement. I never doubt Tanner. He has ice water in his veins. That's the kind of player that he is. The moment is never too big for him."
But if you asked Hall how many strikeouts he had at the end of his outing, he wouldn't have been able to tell you since he learned just minutes before his post game interview.
"I didn't know I had 13 until someone in the dugout asked me after I got pulled in the seventh, 'How many strikeouts did you have?' and I said I didn't know," Hall said. "I honestly didn't realize it. Everything just felt pretty good, so it was just executing pitches and trusting Coach Oz on what he called."
Along with Hall's 13 punch outs, the right-hander gave up just three hits, walked one batter and hit another against USM's in-state rival.
"It's play a faceless opponent," said Hall on how he mentally prepared for the top 10 ranked opponent. "They have a name on their chest just like us. You can't treat them any different. You have to play baseball. That's what we all came here to do."
Southern Miss took and held control of the game from the third inning onward. Gabe Montenegro put the Golden Eagles on the board after he hit a two-run RBI triple. Reece Ewing followed with an RBI single to build the 3-0 lead and extend Ewing's hitting streak eight games. Gabe credited Hall's performance for taking pressure off the lineup and pointed out that the Golden Eagles' win was an example of how well his team can play.
"It puts a lot of pressure away when you know that your pitcher is going to do everything possible to avoid getting runs on," Gabe said. "Putting it all together, this (game) is the perfect example. Our pitching staff is really good. We have a lot of depth. Our offense can execute in the moments that we need to. We are going to be a hard team to beat."
Mississippi State's starting pitcher Jackson Fristoe fell in trouble after walking Slade Wilks and hitting Will McGillis to start the fourth inning. After a sac bunt moved Wilks over to third base, Fristoe threw a wild pitch that allowed him to score.
Fristoe, who was pulled after Wilks scored, finished the game by allowing four runs off four hits while walking two batters and hitting another. Then in the fifth inning, Wilks added two more runs with a two-run RBI double to extend Southern Miss' lead to 6-0.
Finally, in the sixth inning, Rodrigo Montenegro hit a one-out double after he initially had a potential get-called foul on the third baseline. Gabe Montenegro then drove in his brother with an RBI single and pushed the lead to 7-0. Gabe finished the game 3-for-4 while drawing a walk and driving three RBIs.
"We had a lot of guys contribute to this win tonight," Berry said. "Offensively, the Montenegro brothers accounted for five of our seven hits. Gabe with the big two-run triple there in the third that got it going."
Mississippi State's lone run came in the eighth inning after Logan Tanner drove in a run with an RBI double.
"This is the best you'll see right here," Hall said. "We were hitting the ball, pitching the ball and playing defense. A couple of (errors) weren't even an issue because we had enough confidence that we could get back into the dugout and score runs. We knew that anybody coming into the bullpen was going to do their job as they did."
Southern Miss will stay on the road and travel to Lafayette to take on Louisiana. Friday's first pitch against the Ragin' Cajuns is set for 6 p.m.
