As the game headed into the ninth inning, all Josh Och had to do was give his head coach a nod before heading back to the mound to close out the game.
Christian Ostrander quickly nodded back and replied, “go get them.”
“He walked in and was trying to find me,” Ostrander said. “He was staring at me, and I saw him. I nodded, and he nodded. It was his all the way to finish.
“It was a no-brainer.”
With ease, Och retired Louisiana Tech’s lineup to preserve Southern Miss’ 4-0 win over the Bulldogs and keep intact the Golden Eagle pitching staff's combined one-hitter.
“It’s amazing (Ostrander) has that kind of confidence in me,” said Och, who pitched two clean innings. “That builds me up as well that he trusts me so much to go out there and get the next three outs.
“I didn’t know it was a (one-hitter) until after when we were talking about in the (postgame) meeting.”
It’s the first time Southern Miss has thrown back-to-back shutouts since the 2022 season. The current Golden Eagle pitching staff has now thrown 20 straight scoreless innings.
“It shows the mentality of our bullpen and our starting pitchers,” Och said. “JB went out there and threw incredible. He admitted that it wasn’t his most efficient day, but even on his somewhat down days, he still gives us that kind of performance, which is incredible. Our bullpen has the same mindset.”
Och, starting pitcher JB Middleton, and Micah Wascom combined to record 11 strikeouts and give up four walks.
“I was very proud of the pitching staff,” Ostrander said. “I thought JB didn’t have his most efficient night strike percentage-wise, but he battled through it and got us through five. Wascom came in and did a great job of covering the sixth and seventh. Och was really good in that eighth and ninth.”
By comparison, Louisiana Tech (4-1) issued eight walks, hit two batters and gave up seven hits.
Southern Miss (6-0) had its chances to jump out to a big early after loading the bases in the first and second innings. However, the Golden Eagles came away with one run after Davis Gillespie plated a run with an infield RBI single.
From there, Middleton and Louisiana Tech’s starting pitching Grant Hubka dueled for the first fiving innings, with each driving their pitch counts up early. Middleton gave up the one hit, which was a two-out single in the second inning, but finished the day with six strikeouts.
Hubka, who gave up four hits and five walks, was finally pulled with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Carson Paetow then delivered an RBI double to push Southern Miss’ lead to 2-0, but he was thrown out after trying to extend his hit into a triple.
In the seventh inning, Gillespie added to the Golden Eagles’ lead by driving in a run with a sac fly. Ozzie Pratt added an insurance run with another RBI sac fly in the next inning.
“It was the kind of night where runs were at a premium,” Ostrander said. “I was thankful that our guys kept scratching and found ways to put runs on the board.”
Southern Miss will play a doubleheader on Saturday with first pitch set for 12 p.m. The second game will follow roughly 45 minutes later.
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