BATON ROUGE — Austin Tubb pitched a perfect inning and a third to improve his record to 8-0 on the year and help Southern Mississippi advance to the winners’ bracket of the Baton Rouge Regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament with a 6-5 win over the College of Charleston at Alex Box Stadium.
Tubb entered the game in the top of the eighth with the score tied 5-5 and a runner at first base with two outs. After he squashed the College of Charleston threat in the top of the inning, Tubb’s Golden Eagle teammates pushed across the eventual winning run on a wild pitch against College of Charleston’s ace reliever, Brett Harker, dropping his record to 5-3.
The win improved USM’s record to 45-17 overall and moved them into a 3 p.m. showdown tomorrow with regional host LSU who was a 9-0 winner over Army earlier in the day. College of Charleston fell to 45-16 overall and moved into a losers’ bracket game against Army at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
The Cougars put on a textbook example of station-to-station baseball, moving runners all over the bases throughout the game, dinking and darting 13 hits. But, 12 of those 13 were singles and the Cougars stranded eight runners over the last four innings, leaving the door open for Southern Miss to eventually take the advantage despite picking up four fewer hits.
College of Charleston broke into the runs column first when designated hitter Brett Anderson scored ahead of a single by Brian Hastings after walking to lead off the inning. His single was followed by a line drive between second and first by second baseman Chris Campbell. Shortstop Anthony Fairchild drove home the second run of the inning with a well-placed bunt down the first base line scoring Hastings before lead-off man Phillip Coker lobbed a single over second base scoring Campbell and giving the Cougars an early 3-0 lead.
Southern Miss attempted to answer in the bottom of the second when designated hitter Jody Blount led off with a line drive single to center field. Third baseman Beau Griffin followed with a line drive that appeared to be headed into left field but was instead snagged by Fairchild who was spun around by the ball before coming to his feet and starting a magnificent 6-4-3 double play.
The second-seeded Golden Eagles made up most of the three-run deficit in the bottom of the fourth by scoring two runs with two outs. Catcher Brad Willcutt started the rally with a line drive double to the wall in right center. His hit was followed with a single to right by right fielder Ryan Frith before both of them were driven in by an opposite field double to left by left fielder Carlos Valsquez.
The Cougars threatened to extend their lead back to three runs in the top of the fifth with back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Anderson executed a sacrifice bunt perfectly, moving the runners into scoring position with one out. But Southern Miss starter Patrick Ezell toughened up and struck out third baseman Jess Easterling looking on a curveball before Hastings popped out to second.
Southern Miss took advantage of College of Charleston’s inability to extend its lead and tied the score in the bottom of the fifth. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases with one out on three-straight singles before second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir drove in the lone run of the inning with a deep sacrifice fly to right field knotting the score at 3-3.
Campbell led off the top of the sixth for the Cougars with a double that missed clearing the left field wall by less than three feet. Fairchild then punched a single over the first baseman’s head for his first hit of the day, giving the Cougars runners at the corners with no outs and chasing Golden Eagle Ezell from the game.
Adam Smith, Ezell’s relief, was greeted with a line drive into right field by Cougar right fielder Phillip Coker on his first pitch, scoring Campbell and giving College of Charleston a 4-3 lead. But the lone go-ahead run was all the Cougars could muster as an attempted sacrifice bunt turned into a 1-5 fielder’s choice and the next two batters flew out to right and struck out swinging.
College of Charleston picked up where it left off in the sixth in the top of the seventh by loading the bases and pushing across one more run. Smith hit Anderson with a pitch to lead off the inning before the Southern Miss reliever was chased from the game by two straight singles. He was replaced by righty John Nicholas who surrendered a single to Campbell, driving in the lone run of the inning and extending the College of Charleston lead to 5-3. Campbell finished the game 3-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
College of Charleston starting pitcher Ryan Johnson, who entered the game with a perfect 12-0 record this season, ran out of gas with one out in the bottom of the seventh after walking two of the first three batters. He was replaced by Harker, who entered the game leading all pitchers in the Baton Rouge Regional with 13 saves on the season. That impressive total didn’t impress Southern Miss’ leading hitter, however as Hoffpauir scorched a double into the right field corner scoring both runners and tying the score 5-5.
The tie score was the excuse Southern Miss Head Coach Corky Palmer was waiting for to bring in his all-conference reliever, Tubb, who entered the contest with a 7-0 record, 10 saves and a 1.01 ERA. Tubb entered the contest after Nicholas walked Anderson with two outs. He fooled Easterling with a slider that was popped up to the third base for the third out of the inning.
Harker struggled in the bottom of the eighth, walking Frith to lead off the inning and giving up a single two batters later to left fielder Jason Lowery. Harker then uncorked a wild pitch allowing Frith to score the go-ahead and eventual winning run.
Southern Mississippi 6, Coll. of Charleston 5 (Jun 04, 2004 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Coll. of Charleston. 030 001 100 – 5 13 1 (45-15)
Southern Mississippi 000 210 21X – 6 9 1 (45-17)
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Pitchers: Coll. of Charleston – Johnson; Harker(7). Southern Mississippi – Ezell; Smith(6); Nicholas(7); Tubb(8).
Win-Tubb(8-0) Loss-Harker(5-3) T-2:36 A-2840 Game notes:
Paid attendance: 7,452
Ezell faced 2 batters in the 6th.
Smith faced 3 batters in the 7th.