HATTIESBURG, Miss. — It took over 22 hours but Southern Miss used early offense and strong pitching to take the Hattiesburg Super Regional opener 5-3.
The Vols’ struggled to find hits and couldn’t capitalize on early momentum when play resumed Sunday as the Golden Eagles are a win away from advancing to the College World Series.
Here’s everything to know about the super regional opener.
Southern Miss Has Success Against Andrew Lindsey
Tennessee starting pitcher Andrew Lindsey entered the Hattiesburg Super Regional on a tear, allowing a combined four earned runs in his previous four starts.
But Southern Miss found success against the right-hander and it started in the first inning as Lindsey’s command was shaky. The Golden Eagles put runners on the corners with two-outs— one out was a pick off— before Tate Parker hit a liner to centerfield. Hunter Ensley attempted to make a diving catch but couldn’t make the play.
It led to a two-RBI triple as Southern Miss took a 2-0 first inning lead before Lindsey got out of the inning with a strikeout on his 34th pitch.
The senior settled down after the first inning but Southern Miss found ways to add to its lead. After terrorizing the Auburn Regional last weekend, Dustin Dickerson hit his 11th home run of the season in the third inning.
Nick Monistere hit his fifth home run of the season an inning later on a 2-2, two-out pitch. Lindsey didn’t even make a mistake, locating the breaking ball, low-and-away well but the right-hander golfed the ball off the video board in left.
A weather delay hit before the fifth inning began and that ended Lindsey’s day. By pure performance, the Charlotte transfer wasn’t bad. But Southern Miss’ batters did a great job of hitting solid pitches and Lindsey had been so good as of late that his performance looked particularly poor in comparison.
He exited with Tennessee trailing 4-0 and the Vols needing to do serious work to get back in the game.
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Tennessee’s Offense Finds Life Right After Play Resumes
Tennessee had little to no offensive success in the game’s early innings Saturday afternoon, but once play resumed on Sunday after the weather delay, the Vols found life.
Southern Miss used RHP Will Armistead when play resumed Sunday and he actually retired the first batter he faced for the inning’s second out. But Armistead hit and walked the next two batters to load the bases and after a meeting with Southern Miss’ pitching coach, Armistead hit Hunter Ensley on the first pitch of the at-bat to bring in Tennessee’s first run of the game.
The Golden Eagles went to the bullpen after the at-bat, brining in LHP Justin Storm to face lefty Jared Dickey. The Vols’ utility man came through in the way he so often does, lining a two strike pitch up the middle for a two-RBI single that pulled Tennessee within one.
Game on.
Tennessee didn’t add any more runs in the fifth inning as Griffin Merritt went down looking on a low 3-2 pitch that caused Tony Vitello to erupt out of the dugout. Southern Miss even added a run in the next half inning to extend its lead back to two runs.
Still, the vibe of game one of the Hattiesburg Super Regional completely changed just minutes after play resumes Sunday morning.
Hits Hard To Come By For Tennessee
By no means was Tennessee’s offense constantly knocking on the door against Southern Miss, but the Vols also had plenty of baserunners and opportunities to score more runs than they did.
Tennessee’s batters worked a trio of walks and were hit by four pitches too. They had a baserunner reach base on a fielding error.
But hard contact and hits were infrequent for Tennessee. The Vols totaled just four hits in their game one loss including only on after Dickey’s two-RBI single.
In fact, Dickey’s single up the middle was Tennessee’s only hit with a runner on-base. Hitting with baserunners was a struggle for Tennessee early in the season and it reared its ugly head in game one. The Vols hit just one-of-11 with runners on base.
Sure, Tennessee made an out on the base paths and wasn’t great offensively overall. But the Vols inability to get hits, particularly with runners on base was their downfall.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee is on the brink of elimination and needs two straight wins to advance to the College World Series in Omaha. The first pitch for game two Sunday afternoon is at approximately 3 p.m. ET.
