USM baseball loses lead late, still pulls out win at Louisiana-Monroe

MONROE, La. (WDAM) - The University of Southern Mississippi may have lost a four-run lead with the finish line in sight.

But the Golden Eagles didn’t lose Saturday afternoon’s Sun Belt Conference baseball game at Lou St, Amant Field.

Seth Smith’s sacrifice fly broke a 6-6 tie in the top of the eighth inning and Ben Willoughby did the rest, as No. 19 USM came off the deck to pull off a 7-6 victory over host University of Louisiana-Monroe.

With the win, the Golden Eagles (17-6. 4-1 Sun Belt) clinched the best-of-three series, while the Warhawks (9-13, 1-4) dropped a fourth consecutive game.

USM led 6-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but a run-scoring single by Isaiah Walker, RBI-double by Henry Garcia Jr. and two-run single by Jacob Billings stunned the Golden Eagles and tied the game, 6-6.

But USM quickly bounced.

Nick Monistere was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the eighth inning and he moved to second base on Carson Paetow’s infield single.

Joey Urban’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners up, though Tucker Stockman followed with a walk to load the bases.

Smith then lifted a skyball to left field to bring home Monistere with what proved to be the game winning running.

Willoughby (2-0) retired the seven batters he faced over 2 1/3 innings, striking out two.

UL-Monroe’s Joey Cirelli (1-4) was charged with one run on four hits in three innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two.

In fact, none of the three pitchers UL-Monroe used Saturday issued a walk.

Both teams finished with 11 hits.

USM smacked three home runs in the game, including two-run shots by Stockman and Matthew Russo and a solo homer by Urban. It was Russo’s fifth homer of the season and the second of the year for both Stockman and Urban.

Urban also singled, scored twice and drove in a run. Davis Gillespie had a double and single for USM, with a run scored and a run driven in. Jake Cook turned in another multiple-hit game with two singles while also scoring a run.

Walker had three hits for the Warhawks, two doubles and a single, with a RBI and two runs scored. Garcia hit two doubles, drove in two runs and scored a run.

The teams meet in the series final at 1 p.m. Sunday.

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