There isn’t any way to sugarcoat it, but Southern Miss’ bullpen has simply been bad.
That was evident as the Golden Eagles were run-ruled 12-2 in a loss to Georgia State on Friday night.
“They just didn’t get the job done,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “When you come in there, (and allow) freebies, hit by pitches and throwing gasoline on the fire. When you come in with runners on and stuff (then), if they are going to beat you, then you have to make them beat you swinging the bat. We didn’t do that tonight. Then they got their hits after that. They gained a lot of momentum, and we didn’t stop it. We got our tails kicked.”
With the game tied at 2-2 in the third inning, the Golden Eagle gave up nine combined runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Southern Miss’ pitching staff combined to allow 10 hits, nine earned runs, four walks and four hit batters. Georgia State (23-17, 9-8 Sun Belt) also put up three doubles and two home runs.
“It was just unacceptable,” Ostrander said. “When you give up nine runs in the middle of a game, you come out of the pen you are more than capable of doing better. You are not going to win when you do those things. It’s a hard game. You have to be really tough, and you have to be really resilient. We have a few guys that need to get a little tougher in those moments and handle the traffic when you come out of the pen.”
Looking at the overall numbers for the pitching staff, Southern Miss (26-13, 11-6), as of Friday, is ranked in the top 50 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (25th), walks per nine innings (36th), WHIP (42nd) and strikeouts per nine innings (49th).
However, if the Golden Eagles’ Friday ace JB Middleton, who holds a 2.05 ERA, 74 strikeouts and 18 walks in 61 1/3 innings and go-to reliever Colby Allen, who has posted a 4.02 ERA, 44 strikeouts and nine walks in 40.1 innings then the team’s overall numbers drop drastically. Their efforts make up 100.2 innings of the USM’s 341.2 total innings.
The staff’s strikeout per nine innings falls from 9.5 to 9.11 and drops to 77th overall; the strikeout to walk ratio drops from 2.61 to 4.39, falls to 88th overall; walks per nine innings falls from 3.66 to 4.39, falling to 95th overall. The two defining figures include the WHIP falling from 1.37 to 1.57, which would be tied for 120th in the country and the team earned run average moving from 4.37 to 7.65.
“It's tough when you get into a rut,” Ostrander said. “It’s tough when you feel like every pitch has to be perfect. You have to change that thought and change that perspective. We are certainly going to work with these guys to do that.”
Southern Miss’ lineup didn’t fair much better as it mustered just one hit, which was a 2-run home run by Nick Monistere.
“That game got out of hand,” Ostrander said. “We are challenging them to keep fighting and prologue stuff like that. These are humans. We just didn’t get it done. I can handle getting beat. I don’t like it at all, and these guys don’t like it either, but I don’t like getting embarrassed, and that’s what happened tonight. I look forward to watching these guys come out and fight tomorrow.
“We can erase this by coming out and playing our brand of baseball tomorrow.”
Saturday’s first pitch is set for 1 p.m.
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