In the country of Colombia, there's a deeply rooted belief in a concept known as Magical Realism — a lens through which the real world is viewed with a touch of the extraordinary, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur.
In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, they call it Pete Taylor Park Magic.
Southern Miss’ Matthew Russo is a true believer as he launched a solo home run at the bottom of the ninth to walk off Arkansas State 2-1 on Friday night.
“Oh, it’s real,” Russo said of Pete Taylor Park Magic.
“I’ve been here for four years now. I’ve experienced it probably 10 or 12 times now if I had to guess. At least a few times a year, and it’s real. You’ve seen some crazy comebacks and some crazy games, whether it’s me playing, in the dugout, or in the bullpen where I was my freshman year.
“I’ve done it three times in my career now, and it’s good. It’s fun. I think the ball may have hit my dad out there, quite honestly. I’m just happy to do it. I just want to find a way to win that’s what it is all about.”
If magic exists at Pete Taylor Park, then the program’s numbers seem to back Russo’s claim.
Southern Miss has hit a walk-off 33 times dating back to 2017. This season alone, the Golden Eagles have hit five walk offs with the most recent being Russo’s second of the year, which was against UNC Wilmington. Notably since 2017, the Golden Eagles have won at least seven games starting in the month of April for the last eight seasons.
Russo admitted that just before he belted out a hanging curveball over the right field wall, he could hear the fans expecting a walk-off.
“I try to lock in on my at-bat, but I did hear (the buzz) when I was walking up,” Russo said. “It’s a confidence booster. The fans are behind us. We had three hits in the game going into that and one run, but they believed in us. That’s why we play for them. We love them. It was good.”
Prior to Russo’s bat, each team’s last hit came in the fourth inning. Arkansas State's pitching staff retired 14 straight Golden Eagle batters, while Southern Miss’ pitching duo of JB Middleton and Colby Allen combined to retire 13 batters.
“They pounded the zone, and we did too,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “They mixed it really well. We never looked real comfortable in that box. That’s what you try to do with keeping the hitters on skates if we can. They did a pretty good job of that tonight. I’m going to tip my hat to them.
“The biggest thing in this game to me was that JB and Colby kept it right there and gave us a chance since runs were at a premium.”
Arkansas State’s lone run was a solo home run in the second inning. As for Southern Miss ( 33-13, 16-6), the Golden Eagles’ first run came in the third inning after Tucker Stockman hit a leadoff double, which was followed by an RBI single by Ozzie Pratt.
“It’s a tough game,” Russo said. “Offensively, we just didn’t execute. We didn’t find our way on base. Our pitching picked us up, and that’s what good teams do. Good teams find a way to win. We are going to learn from this day. The best part about our bad day was that we won. Props to Colby and JB. They are awesome and did what they were supposed to do and capable of doing.
“I’m happy to be able to help my team win. Quite honestly, I thought about how we could have done better. I didn’t want to have to walk us off. It just happened to be that way, but we are going to learn from it.”
Saturday’s first pitch is set for 2 p.m.
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