Southern Miss coach Scott Berry called upon his team’s leadership after Saturday’s loss to Old Dominion. Sure enough, that leadership helped USM overcome a 3-0 deficit that was capped off with captain Danny Lynch walking off the Monarchs 5-4 in 10 innings to avoid the series sweep on Sunday.
“You can’t get swept,” Lynch said. “It’s huge. They took two from us at home. You really can’t get swept in league play. That was huge to grind that one out.
“It was about competing better. Friday night, I thought we played a decent game. We just didn’t get the big hits when we needed them. Yesterday, it was uncompetitive. It wasn’t us, and it wasn’t how we played baseball. Today was about coming back and playing Golden Eagle baseball and competing harder.”
The Golden Eagles were certainly challenged after Old Dominion (31-13, 13-11) jumped out a 3-0 lead by the fourth inning.
“Today was about the mental challenge,” Berry said. “It was about mentally having yourself able to compete and overcome two tough losses and stuff not going in our way.
“You can either be down about it, or you can gather your thought and get yourself ready mentally to compete. That was the message to the guys in the pregame to salvage the win. I think that’s exactly what they did.”
Southern Miss’ starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep loaded the bases to start the game after walking a pair of batters and giving up a hit but minimized the damage as he only gave up an RBI sac fly. Waldrep threw six complete innings as he allowed three runs off three hits and struck out 10 batters and walked three batters in 102 pitches.
“He was struggling with fastball command,” Berry said. “He’s throwing 96-97 mph, but you have to command it. What bailed him out was his slider, which they went to. They went to pitch it off the slider and used the fastball as a secondary pitch, which enabled him to get a lot of strikeouts against a bunch of tough hitters.”
The Monarchs then extended their lead with a 2-run home run in the fourth inning. However, another senior captain Will McGillis gave Southern Miss (36-12, 18-6) left as he belted a 2-run home run to narrow the margin to 3-2 in the bottom of the frame.
The Golden Eagles tied the game in the sixth with an RBI single from Christopher Sargent. Southern Miss then took the lead at 4-3 in the seventh after Dustin Dickerson drew a two-out walk with bases loaded, but USM failed to plate any more runs in the inning.
Taking over on the mound for Southern Miss was reliever Landon Harper, who had shut down ODU’s offense in his first two innings. However, in the top of the ninth, with two outs, the Monarchs’ Thomas Wheeler launched a solo home run to left field to the game and tied the game at 4-4.
“It was after three innings, and he wanted to go back out there,” Berry said. “His pitch count was up there. He hadn’t worked since last weekend, so he did have ample time to rest. But it’s hot, and you are sweating every pitch because (Old Dominion) can hit. You get two quick outs there in the top of the ninth, and you think it’s over; then, all of a sudden, the guy hits a really good pitch. Now the mental challenge really kicks in.”
Harper stayed the course in his longest outing of the season and struck out six batters in four innings and gave up just three hits. It was the 10th time this season, that the Golden Eagles struck out 15 or more batters and 35th time this year they recorded at least strikeouts.
“My mentality was to take it pitch by pitch, hit my location, and do what I’m supposed to do, then good things will happen behind me,” said Harper, who earned his second win of the season. “I have the confidence in myself to go up there and have pitch ability.”
Finally, in the 10th inning, Sargent reached base on an error with one out. A double by McGillis put runners at second and third, which helped set up Lynch’s game-winner.
Southern Miss will return to action against in-state rival Ole Miss on Wednesday at home, with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
