BILOXI – It’s only fitting Southern Miss’ home run king stepped up to the plate one swing away from winning a first-round game in the Conference USA Tournament.
With a tie game in the bottom of the 10th, junior Matt Wallner smoked a line drive over the right field wall to complete a come back over the Rice Owls, 6-4. Trailing 4-1 in the ninth, Southern Miss got three runs to send the contest to extras, then after a one-out walk, Wallner hit his 55th career home run to push the Golden Eagles to a winner’s bracket game Thursday.
Wallner was upset with himself after missing a 2-0 fastball, but he didn’t miss the next pitch.
“I’m not going to lie, I was mad about that one,” Wallner said. “I didn’t think I was going to get another one, but he threw me one a little bit more up. But I would have liked to hit that 2-0 one, too.”
Wallner has now hit home runs in four straight games, and the last two are easily the most memorable ones of his career. Last Saturday against UAB, his 54th career home run gave him the Southern Miss record for most homers in a career. The Minnesota native was hitless prior to his at-bat in the 10th, so he wasn’t thinking about the streak.
“I forgot about (the streak) going 0-for-4 to start the day,” Wallner said. “I think I’ll take another one tomorrow, but let’s just go for singles and see what happens.”
It’s the first time since 2010 a Southern Miss player has hit a home run in four straight games. B.A. Vollmuth was the Golden Eagle that time, and he did it in three games against Rice and one against Mississippi State.
Southern Miss will now play Marshall at 4 p.m. Thursday. The sixth-seeded Thundering Herd took down No. 3 Louisiana Tech 6-4 in 12 innings earlier on Wednesday.
The Southern Miss bats were ice cold prior to the ninth inning. It did put together three straight hits in the seventh to scratch one run across and cut Rice’s lead to 4-1, but the Golden Eagles were put down in order four times in the contest. The seventh inning was the only inning a runner reached scoring position prior to ninth.
Rice starter Matt Canterino, the conference’s pitcher of the year, stifled the Golden Eagles offense. He was nearly unhittable through his first six innings, and he finished with nine strikeouts and two walks in 6.1 innings of work. He allowed one earned run on three hits to help his team jump up 4-0.
“Give credit to Canterino,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “Preseason pitcher of the year and ended up being the (Conference USA) Pitcher of the Year, and that’s tough to go from start to finish. Today, he was really good. He had us chasing balls out of the zone with a lot of deception.”
The memory of Southern Miss’ offensive struggles faded in the ninth, though. Bryant Bowen and Fred Franklin singled with two outs, then Danny Lynch walked to load the bases. Both of the singles in the ninth were infield singles, and both times the Southern Miss base runner made contact with Rice’s first baseman Bradley Gneiting. The second time, however, knocked Gneiting out of the game with an arm injury.
After Lynch walked, Storme Cooper doubled down the first base line, just out of the reach of Gneiting’s replacement, to score two runs. A wild pitch during the next at-bat tied the game.
“I wasn’t going to swing at any off-speed,” Cooper said. “I just wanted to get a barrel (on the pitch), so I was going to swing at a fastball if he threw a fastball. I wasn’t trying to do too much. Just pass it off to the next guy in the lineup.”
It’s been a down year for the senior infielder. Entering his plate appearance Wednesday, he had a .139 batting average in 36 at-bats. Cooper has had plenty of clutch moments throughout his career, so the moment wasn’t too big for him. But his sixth hit of the season was one of the biggest of his career.
“It feels really good just to take it in right now,” Cooper said. “Senior year, I’m just trying to take every moment in right now.”
Stevie Powers will start Thursday for Southern Miss against Marshall.
