HATTIESBURG – Six Southern Miss pitchers limited Mississippi State to three singles Sunday as the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles swept the 23rd-ranked Bulldogs with a 5-2 victory Sunday at Pete Taylor Park.
A two-strike, two-run double into the right-center field gap by Southern Miss third baseman Luke Reynolds in the fifth inning broke a 2-2 tie and the Bulldogs did not get a hit after the fourth inning.
Southern Miss (3-0) never trailed in the three-game series dubbed “The Mississippi Farm Bureau Classic” as the Golden Eagles outscored the Bulldogs 23-6 over the season-opening weekend.
“This was real big,” Southern Miss shortstop LeeMarcus Boyd said. “As you know, they put us out of the (NCAA) Regional last year, so, coming back and doing this, sweeping them this weekend, that let us know as a team that we really are going to be pretty good this year.”
For MSU (0-3), it marked just the third time since 1940 that the Bulldogs had started a season with at least three losses. Before this weekend, State never had lost to the same opponent three times to open a season.
Southern Miss won 11-0 Friday night and 7-4 Saturday.
“We got punched in the mouth Friday night, but we responded better on Saturday and got into a good ballgame again (Sunday),” MSU coach Andy Cannizaro said. “I do not think that we hit well, pitched well or defended well on the weekend, but I felt like we got better as the weekend went on.
“ … That’s an outstanding ballclub and are certainly worthy. They are a Top 10 team in the country right now, nationally.”
The series drew a Pete Taylor Park-record 14,906 for the three games, including 4,970 Sunday.
What they saw was a dominant performance by the Golden Eagles and Reynolds.
Reynolds, who had to sit the past two years after transferring from MSU, hit .600 in the three-game set, with six runs scored, five RBIs. Half of his six hits went for extra bases, including two doubles and a home run.
“That was pretty amazing,” Reynolds said. “There’re just no words for it. It was good, man, but I don’t know. Kind of no words for it.
“But I enjoyed every single minute of it. That was awesome.”
Freshman left-handed reliever Jacob Weirich (1-0) walked two and struck out three in 2 2/3 shutout innings, retiring the first seven batters he faced.
MSU left-handed reliever Zach Neff (0-1) took the loss, giving up three runs - one earned - on two hits in his one inning.
Matt Wallner, who came up with tough catches in center field to end the fifth and seventh innings, picked up his first save of the season. In a scoreless ninth inning, Wallner struck out two, including State freshman first baseman Josh Hatcher to end the game.
Hatcher, who had three hits in each of State’s first two games, went hitless Sunday, but scored one of the Bulldogs’ runs. Leadoff man, center fielder Jake Mangum, had a single Sunday and had at least one hit in all three games of the series.
MSU scored both runs in the third, sandwiching three walks between two hit-by-pitches to tie the game 2-2 off Southern Miss starter J.C. Keys and reliever Mason Strickland.
Reynolds and redshirt freshman Gabe Montenegro, who made the first start of his career Sunday, each finished with two hits.
Montenegro had an RBI-single to help Southern Miss take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Right fielder Mason Irby drove in the other with a bases-loaded walk.
In the fifth inning, second baseman Matthew Guidry singled and Irby reached when Tanner Allen dropped a fly ball in left field.
Reynolds than ripped a 1-2 offering from Neff to the wall in right-center, scoring both Guidry and Irby.
During the play, Reynolds wound up halfway between second and third. Neff tried to catch Reynolds heading back to second, but threw high, with the ball going into center field. That allowed Reynolds to score the game’s final run.
Keys, Strickland and Wierich were followed to the mound by Cody Carroll, Keller Bradford and Wallner.
Southern Miss takes Game 2, wins series over MSU
HATTIESBURG – Jaylon Keys and Luke Reynolds homered to help Southern Miss build an early lead, and the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles downed No. 23 Mississippi State 7-4 Saturday at Pete Taylor Park.
With Saturday’s victory, the Golden Eagles clinched the season-opening series dubbed the “Mississippi Farm Bureau Classic” and will go for a sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Southern Miss (2-0) built a 5-0 lead after two innings against MSU starting left-hander Ethan Small, scoring three runs in the first before Keys and Reynolds followed with mammoth solo shots just a batter apart in the second.
State (0-2) scored its first runs of the series in the top of the third when MSU freshman first baseman Josh Hatcher hit a two-run home run off Southern Miss starter Stevie Powers.
But those were the only runs Powers allowed, and Southern Miss tacked on two more scores in the sixth to pad its lead and offset the single runs the Bulldogs scored in the eighth and ninth innings.
For a second consecutive day, Pete Taylor Park drew one of the top 10 crowds in its history as 4,988 came through the gates to watch the two, nationally-ranked intrastate rivals square off again.
The seventh-largest crowd since The Pete opened watched as the Golden Eagles got to one of State’s highly-regarded left-handers early for a second consecutive day.
Small (0-1), perhaps, deserved a better fate in the first inning.
Mason Irby blooped a one-out single into no-man’s land in right field, Reynolds followed with a walk and Matt Wallner singled sharply to center to load the bases.
Hunter Slater then hit a crisp grounder that bounced off the chest of Hunter Stovall, who recovered to get Slater at first. But instead of a potential, inning-ending double play, the fielder’s choice drove in Irby with the game’s first run.
Bryant Bowen followed with a first-pitch, two-run single to left field and USM led 3-0.
With one out in the second, Keys hit a solo shot over the billboard behind the left-field, and one out later, Reynolds hit his own over the right-center field wall for a 5-0 lead.
Powers, who struck out Hunter Vansau to get out of two-on, two-out jam in the top of the first, allowed a bloop double to Mangum before Hatcher cranked the first home run of his collegiate career over the right-field wall.
But Powers bounced back set the Bulldogs in order, and then got a double-play grounder to get out of a fourth-inning jam.
Powers, who allowed two runs on seven hits, was lifted after allowing a one-out single in the fifth, but Jarod Wright came in and got an inning-ending double play to end the threat.
Wright (1-0) picked up his first career win, allowing a run on four hits over 3 2/3 innings.
Southern Miss added two runs in the sixth inning off MSU reliever Denver McQuary on Gabe Montenegro’s RBI-triple and Irby’s fielder’s choice .
MSU added single runs in the last two innings.
Hatcher collected three hits for a second consecutive day. Vansau and Allen had two hits apiece.
Wallner matched his career-high with three hits Saturday, while Reynolds added two more hits and scored two more runs.
Game 1: Southern Miss blanks State 11-0 in season opener
HATTIESBURG – Matthew Guidry has seen plenty of Nick Sandlin over the past few years with the Southern Mississippi baseball.
So, while Guidry was duly impressed as usual, he said he wasn’t overly surprised by the performance the Golden Eagles’ former closer turned in Friday night against Mississippi State in his first career collegiate start.
Sandlin struck out a career-high nine batters during seven shutout innings as the No. 21 Golden Eagles stifled the No. 23 Bulldogs 11-0 victory at Pete Taylor Park.
Sandlin scattered four singles and didn’t walk a batter in the longest outing of his career, retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.
“About the only word that really describes it is ‘Wow,’ and you can say you’re really surprised by it, but really, you’re not,” said Guidry, one of four Golden Eagles to drive in at least two runs against four MSU pitchers in the season opener for both teams.
“That’s just what he does. I’ve seen him do it all the time, though I never take it for granted. I love watching him do what he does and watching him compete. It’s something special every time he toes the rubber.”
The eighth-largest crowd in Taylor Park history, 4,948, and a horde of professional baseball scouts saw Sandlin outduel MSU ace Konnor Pilkinton in the opening-game of the three-game series dubbed the Farm Bureau Classic.
Southern Miss nicked Pilkington (0-1) for a run in the fourth inning when newcomer third baseman Luke Reynolds singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out double by veteran Hunter Slater.
“That was very important,” said Reynolds, a former MSU player who has had to sit out the past two seasons during the transfer to Hattiesburg. “We were just wanting to punch them in the mouth first.
“We knew that if we punched them in the mouth first, we had the firepower to keep it on them.”
And they had Sandlin, who had not started a game as a pitcher since his high school days in Georgia. The past two years he has been Southern Miss’ lockdown closer, with 20 saves in two seasons and 10 wins in 2017.
Sandlin retired the Bulldogs in order in five of his seven innings, needing 93 pitches to cover that distance. The only time he got in any trouble came in the third inning, when he allowed consecutive singles with two outs to MSU left fielder Rowdey Jordan, center fielder Jake Mangum and first baseman Josh Hatcher.
But Sandlin got second baseman Hunter Stovall to bounce into an inning-ending force out and the Bulldogs would not manage multiple baserunners against him again.
Sandlin said his time as closer helped prepare him to handle such predicaments.
“I’ve been in a lot of situations like that before,” Sandlin said. “I was just thankful (the hits) were just singles.
“I’ve been there where you kind of had to (get) somebody out like you do late in the game, and I was fortunate to (get) that (out).
“That was definitely the turning point in the outing for me.”
Guidry ended Pilkington’s night when he took the first pitch of the fifth inning over the fence in right field to put the Golden Eagles up 2-0.
Pilkington gave up two runs on five hits in four-plus innings. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out six.
Southern Miss shortstop LeeMarcus Boyd greeted reliever Keegan James with a double to right field, moved to third on a bunt and scored on Reynolds’ fielder’s choice grounder to the right side for a 3-0 USM lead after five innings.
The lead went to 4-0 in the sixth on a single by catcher Cole Donaldson, a two-base throwing error by James on a pickoff attempt and Guidry’s sacrifice fly.
Southern Miss would carry a 6-0 lead into the final two innings after a run-scoring double by Reynolds and second baseman Storme Cooper’s fielder’s choice gave the Golden Eagles a pair of runs in the seventh against MSU reliever Jared Liebelt.
The Bulldogs would get two men on in each of the eighth and ninth innings but could not push anything across against a pair of USM relievers, left-hander Jacob Weirich and right-hander Keller Bradford.
Southern Miss pushed five more runs across in the eighth inning against Liebelt. Right fielder Matt Wallner singled in the first, Slater was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for the second and the third scored when Donaldson coaxed a base-loaded walk.
Cooper then followed with a two-run single off Liebelt’s leg into right field to give him a three-RBI night.
Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry picked up the 300th victory in his career even without stepping onto the diamond Friday. Berry was suspended for the first two games of the 2018 season after being ejected from an NCAA Regional game last spring.
Reynolds, Donaldson and Boyd each had two hits for the Golden Eagles, who finished with 11. Hatcher and Mangum collected five of MSU’s six hits.
The teams will meet at 1 p.m. Saturday.
