No. 22 Southern Miss blasted two home runs and used a six-run third to take Game 1 against Texas State in commanding fashion, 8-2.
“Great game all the way around,” Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said. “We needed it. We needed to get back in that win column and get a little momentum going.”
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and marked the second dominant Friday in a row for Southern Miss behind the pitching of Grayden Harris.
Harris covered six and a third innings, giving up just two earned runs to one of the league’s best offensive teams and surrendering no home runs. He struck out six while walking just two on 96 total pitches.
Despite that incredible outing, Harris said that tonight he “didn’t have his best stuff.”
“I felt like I didn’t have my best stuff tonight,” Harris said. “I just had to go out there and compete and go back to the basics. Attack early and trust my stuff. Don’t worry about any outside noise or all the hitters on the other team, because they are a good team. You must attack with your best stuff. I feel like I did that well.”
Ostrander said that it’s a good trait when a good pitcher hungers for a better outing despite dominance.
“That’s the mark of a good pitcher,” Ostrander said. “If you don’t have your best stuff but can still get six-plus innings and only give up a run or two, that’s good. He’s very critical of himself and expects a lot of himself. That’s a good trait and characteristic.”
After Harris was pulled, Colby Allen came in to close the game. He covered eight outs in just 25 pitches, delivering 21 of them for strikes and fanning four.
Allen has been lights out for Southern Miss since moving back into the pen. He’s pitched a 2.25 ERA and 0.90 WHIP out of the pen this season for Southern Miss.
The pitching was impressive, but it was finally aided by big offensive numbers.
It all got started in the bottom of the third inning after Texas State grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the second.
The Golden Eagles got it going when Gray Eubanks was plunked by the second pitch he saw. Then, Seth Smith and Joey Urban both put down perfect bunt singles to load the bases with no outs.
Kyle Morrison scored the first run for Southern Miss with a sac fly RBI, and Davis Gillespie gave Southern Miss the lead for good with an RBI single to make it 2-1.
Drey Barrett doubled to score another before Ben Higdon came to the plate and blasted a 378-foot opposite-field home run, his third of the season, to give the home squad a 6-1 advantage.
“I had a pretty good feeling [it was gone off the bat],” Higdon said. “I got it up in the air and put a good swing on it. I wasn’t trying to do too much, just tried to hit the ball hard and let those chips fall where they may and got some success tonight.”
The homer practically sent a proverbial sigh of relief across the ballpark. The Golden Eagles have had so many opportunities to piece together hits this season and couldn’t get it done. Tonight they did, going 9-for-15 with runners on base and 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“We just put pressure on them,” Ostrander said in response to how tonight was different. “We lead off hit by pitch and then back-to-back bunts. Seth put down a beautiful bunt they had no chance on. Then, Joey made them make a play and they didn’t. So that set it up, and Higdon getting that big home run. That was kind of the dagger there for that inning.”
Kyle Morrison added to the lead with a 408-foot solo home run to center field in the bottom of the fifth. Smith completed the scoring in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single.
The win marked the fourth straight Friday night win. The problems for Southern Miss have come in the Saturday and Sunday games. There seems to be a drop-off in consistency over the past few weeks that must change for Southern Miss to win this series.
“If there was a secret formula, word or quote we could say, we’d all do it and go undefeated,” Ostrander said. “They just have to play the game. A lot of things can happen in a game … our goal tomorrow is just to be hungry for another one. We want to be starving for that next game.”
Higdon echoed that sentiment.
“We’re 1-0 today and at midnight tonight we will be 0-0 again,” Higdon said. “Tomorrow, we have to come out and keep that hunger and aggression and really play together and continue to play clean baseball.”
With the win, Southern Miss improves to 26-12 and 9-7 in conference. Texas State falls to 25-13 and 9-7 in conference.
The two teams will meet at 3 p.m. tomorrow in Game 2, where the Golden Eagles will look to avoid dropping their fourth straight Saturday game and win the series.
