MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the past several years, Southern Miss has saved its now signature home run celebration for the postseason.
The tradition features the home run hitter pretending to take a group photo after stepping on home plate. The Golden Eagles’ center fielder, Jake Cook, was jokingly practicing that moment earlier in the week.
Cook, who hit his first home run earlier this season since he was 13, unexpectedly got the honor of being the first to do the celebration.
Cook’s homer not only helped Southern Miss defeat Texas State 9-1 in the Sun Belt tournament opener at the Riverwalk Stadium on Wednesday, but also helped extend its winning streak to 16 straight games, setting a new program record.
“I was practicing in the locker room earlier this week as a joke,” Cook said. “I wasn’t expecting to be the first person to do it. I got to home plate and I tapped (Tucker Stockman's) helmet. I turned around and forgot to do this, so I took the picture.”
Cook redshirted with the team his first year and didn’t even travel in the 2023 season.
“My first year, I watched it on TV, and I thought ‘gosh that’s cool,’” Cook said. “Last year, I got to watch it from the dugout. This year I got to do it.”
Along with Cook’s home run, Southern Miss (42-13) put up 14 hits and scored runs in seven different innings. Notably, during USM’s 16-game win streak, the Golden Eagles have averaged 12.3 hits and nine runs per game.
“It’s hard to do that at this level,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “Confidence is a powerful thing, and momentum is a powerful thing. These guys have grabbed it, and they are not letting go. It’s a hard game. A bad hop here, or a bad call there, can change things. The words they are saying to each other in the dugout, the locker room, the hotel, and the bus are powerful right now. I can hear it loud and clear that these guys have received the message and are playing good baseball.”
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after Carson Paetow drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Joey Urban followed with an RBI single in the first inning. Cook then drove in a run from a fielder’s choice in the second.
Cook’s home run came in the fourth inning, which was a two-run shot over the right field wall. Ozzie Pratt delivered a two-run single to extend the score to 7-0 in the fifth.
“To be honest, I had been hitting more homers in (batting practice) recently,” Cook said. “I kinda figured I was going to get on a ball here sooner or later. I’m never really expecting to hit a homer, so it was really cool.
“I got a slider. It was two strikes. It was just see ball, hit ball. I got one up and in, and it was able to get up in the air.”
On the mound, JB Middleton delivered seven innings of work after he struck out 10 batters and only walked one batter while giving up one earned run off five hits.
The only trouble that he fell into was in the sixth inning after the Bobcats loaded the bases with one out. Middleton gave up an RBI single to Texas State (27-30), narrowing the score to 7-1, but the right-hander responded with back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
“I had all three of (my pitches) working so I was just trying to execute,” Middleton said. “He kind of calmed me down and reset. We slowed it down right there and had to get back to executing a few pitches.”
The Golden Eagles got the run back after Pratt tacked on another run with an RBI single to push the score to 8-1 in the bottom of the frame, with Matthew Russo later putting up a run with a sac fly.
“I was very proud of the way the guys played today,” Ostrander said. “It was clean in all aspects.
“To be able to keep stacking on runs once you got a lead was huge. JB was lights out again.”
Southern Miss will face Old Dominion in the next round with first pitch set for 4 p.m.
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