Southern Miss closed out the opening weekend with a 7-2 victory over Liberty on Sunday.
Since 2015, the Golden Eagles have won every opening weekend series and swept their opponent in eight of those nine years.
BATS IGNITE LATE
After struggling with strikeouts and failing to capitalize with runners in scoring position Southern Miss’ bats came alive for the Sunday finale against the Flames.
In the first two games, No. 18 USM combined to post 11 hits and struck out 27 times, which it should be noted that Liberty’s starting pitchers on Friday and Saturday deserve some of that credit. Southern Miss (3-0) also stole five bases by the end of the weekend. Last season, it took USM 22 games to reach that mark.
On Sunday, USM put up nine hits, six of which were for extra bases and only struck out six times. In the first inning, Dustin Dickerson doubled and then stole third base, which set up a fielder’s choice RBI for Carson Paetow.
Liberty’s pitching struggled as USM drove the pitch count up on starting pitcher Mikey Tepper. Tepper gave up a pair of leadoff walks to start the fifth, which put his count to 62 pitches. Danny Lynch scored on a wild pitch, followed by an RBI double from Matthew Etzel.
The Flames continued to struggle on the mound while USM continued to put pressure around the bases in the sixth inning. Liberty (0-3) walked two batters and hit another, with a wild pitch scoring another run for USM.
Finally, in the eighth inning, the Golden Eagles pulled away with a leadoff home run from Tate Parker and then an RBI double from Dustin Dickerson and an RBI sac fly from Etzel.
“We took advantage of some wild pitches,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “You have to get on base to score runs. That’s what we were able to create. We walked five times and scored off an error.
“We did some things well that generated momentum for the offense. It seems like the past few years that, we have kind of started slow and kind of continued to build that momentum; hopefully, and I think we’ll get going more, especially with the older guys that we have in that lineup. Today should give us some confidence moving forward.”
ETZEL AND PARKER DELIVER
Transfer outfielders Matthew Etzel and Tate Parker were as good as advertised.
Etzel finished the weekend 3-for-13, while Parker was 3-for-8. Etzel drove in a team-leading three runs, hit two doubles and stole a base.
Etzel also robbed an extra-base hit against Liberty on Friday as he tracked down a ball hit to right center and caught it at the wall.
“He can go get them, and he makes it look easy,” Berry said. “He’s an exciting player. We haven’t even seen what he is capable of doing in all honesty. I’m not putting pressure on the young man. I’ve watched him since August. He’s just fun to watch. He goes about it in a very business-like manner. He works very hard at practice, and he stays after. He does all things that great players do, and we saw just a touch of that.”
Parker, who finished with two RBIs, didn’t start on Sunday as last year’s starting left fielder Reece Ewing earned the nod because Liberty started a right-hander pitcher on the mound.
“What you don’t know about Tate is that he is a father, a husband, a student (and) he’s an athlete,” Berry said. “There are a lot of things that Tate has to be that nobody else does that’s surrounding him. Tip your hat to that young man with what he is having to do right now, and play all of those roles and play them well.
“I was proud of the way he responded today. I wanted to go with that matchup. I thought (Ewing) played well. Tate came off the bench and gave us a couple of quality at-bats. He’s a nice player and very aggressive at the plate. I like the way that he plays and goes about it.”
ELECTRIC BULLPEN
They don’t call Southern Miss pitching coaching Christian Ostrander the Wizard of Oz for nothing. With so many question marks surrounding the pitching staff after losing so much talent, USM seemed to put away any doubt as the Golden Eagles essentially picked up where they left off from last season.
In total, Southern Miss’ pitching staff struck out 37 batters, walked seven and allowed just two earned runs all weekend. The bullpen accounted for 19 strikeouts, three walks and one earned run.
“There’s still a lot of unknowns, though,” Berry said. “It’s kind of double-edged. We didn’t get as many guys in there as we would like, but the guys that we did get in there responded very well. We still have a lot of pieces that we have to figure out and how they are going to fit into our plans. Probably moving forward, those pieces will be shown.”
The Flames’ two runs on Sunday came after Liberty had a leadoff runner reach base on an error. Starting pitcher, Niko Mazza gave up an RBI single two at-bats later, which tied the game at 1-1. Then in the ninth inning, closer Justin Storm gave up a leadoff solo home run.
In 5.1 innings, Mazza struck out six batters, walked two and allowed one run. The solo home run was Liberty’s only extra-base hit all weekend.
Notably was also 0-for-24 with two outs, with USM having three inning-ending double plays this weekend.
The Golden Eagles return to action Tuesday as they host UNO, with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
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