No. 12 Southern Miss had its 18-game winning streak snapped in a 7-5 Sun Belt championship loss against No. 11 Coastal Carolina on Sunday.
The Chanticleers (48-11) head into the NCAA Tournament as a guaranteed host in Conway, South Carolina, while the Golden Eagles (44-14) await their postseason fate.
Scoring Summary
After a 5-run bottom of the fifth inning, Coastal Carolina took a 7-3 lead, one the Golden Eagles could not rally past. A Southern Miss throwing error allowed Chanticleer left fielder Sebastian Alexander to reach first base while Caden Bodine scored. Then the conference’s top-seeded club broke things open in the frame with three straight singles, leading to four runs.
While the Golden Eagles did not allow any to cross home plate for the next three innings, Southern Miss could only garner a home run from Sun Belt player of the year Nick Monistere, and another score after a hit by pitch scored brought a singular Eagle to home plate.
Earlier in the game, USM picked up a trio of runs courtesy of solo shots by Ben Higdon and Joey Urban, along with Monistere slapping an RBI single that brought Ozzie Pratt across the plate.
What the coach said
While Southern Miss head baseball coach Christian Ostrander was disappointed with the result, he expressed how good Coastal Carolina was and how his club played a tough schedule this season.
“Coastal is an outstanding ball club, and they are having a great year. It was a great game and a battle, their pitching staff is as good as advertised,” Ostrander said. “We are, of course, disappointed because we are competitors, but thankful that we get to play again and it’s not over for us.”
When asked about the prospect of hosting a regional, Ostrander stated, “The body of work from this group of young men is well deserving, but it’s out of our control, and we’ll see tomorrow.”
The next round
While Golden Eagle reliever Landen Payne (2-1) suffered the loss as he allowed five runs (two earned) on five hits and three strikeouts over two innings, Coastal Carolina reliever Darin Horn went two innings as well and limited Southern Miss to a run on one hit with three walks and no strikeouts to improve to 5-1.
Southern Miss’ Matt Adams, Monistere, and Pratt were each selected to the All-Sun Belt Conference Tournament team.
An announcement on the NCAA Tournament host sites will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening through its social media channels. The NCAA Tournament Selection Show takes place on Monday at 11 a.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.
