Southern Miss has been eliminated from its home regional for the second straight year, with the Golden Eagles dropping each of its first two NCAA Tournament games. After falling to Little Rock on Friday, the black and gold landed in the elimination round versus Virginia, where the Cavaliers were on the better side of a 15-11 final in extra innings.
Uncharacteristically rough pitching was the theme of the shortened regional appearance by the Golden Eagles (44-17), who surrendered 22 runs in the two losses, despite unloading their top arms at both foes. The bats were adequate, however, with Southern Miss scoring 15 runs in the two games. But the offensive production was not enough to match a suboptimal showing on the mound.
In Saturday’s matchup, the Golden Eagles leaned on a three-run bottom of the eighth to tie the game 11-11, and a scoreless ninth inning sent things into extras. Virginia (37-22) handled business in the top of the 10th, adding four runs to the scoreboard, while Southern Miss went down in order in its final frame.
The Cavaliers were led offensively by star center fielder AJ Gracia, who had a whopping five hits and five RBI. Kyle Johnson had a complementary three hits, two RBI, and a home run, while Joe Tiroly had a hit, four RBI, and a long ball. Left-handed pitcher Max Stammel (3-4) got the win for Virginia, logging three strikeouts in 1.1 scoreless innings. The two-seed’s pitching staff fanned a total of 15 batters in the game.
For Southern Miss, Davis Gillespie led things offensively, with two hits, four RBI, and a home run. Joey Urban notably had three hits, and Tucker Stockman had a deep shot. Right-handed pitcher Thomas Crabtree (2-3) took the loss, surrendering one run on three hits in 2.1 innings. Left-handed ace Grayden Harris was tattooed in the matchup, giving up an uncommon 9 earned runs on 10 hits in three innings.
How it happened
Harris allowed 3 hits from Virginia in the top of the first inning and an RBI single from Gracia for a 1-0 lead, but the hurler returned with three strikeouts to finish the frame. Golden Eagle catcher Tucker Stockman hit a towering 400-foot three-run home run, giving his club a 3-1 lead over Virginia after two innings.
Tiroly knocked a three-run homer off Southern Miss for a 4-3 lead, followed by Davis Gillespie hitting a 410-foot three-run home run for a 6-4 lead over the Cavaliers in the bottom of the third inning.
Gracia then tripled down the line, clearing the bases loaded lineup after an RBI single by RJ Holmes and an RBI fielder’s choice by Tiroly made the score 9-6 with the Cavaliers leading in the top of the fourth inning. After six innings, Southern Miss put up two more runs with a Gillespie double and a Drey Barrett single that cut Virginia’s lead to 9-8 going into the seventh.
Virginia’s Noah Murray and Gracia knocked in RBI singles to increase the Cavaliers’ lead to 11-8 over Southern Miss in the top of the seventh inning, followed by Southern Miss tying the Cavaliers 11-11 with a Tucker Stockman two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Finally, Zach Jackson hit a two-run single for Virginia, and a following two-run homer from Johnson gave Chris Pollard’s club a 15-11 advantage that would not be relinquished.
Coach’s comments
Southern Miss frontman Christian Ostrander expressed pride in what his club accomplished this season despite being bounced early from its home regional. The third-year head coach bragged about the seniors on this team, which won the Sun Belt Tournament last weekend.
“It was a heavyweight fight, and we came up short,” Ostrander remarked. “I’ll take ownership of the losses and say these players worked their tail off. Nobody knows the amount of work we put in for this year to accomplish what we did.”
Next up
Southern Miss’ loss puts Virginia into the Sunday elimination game against either Little Rock or Jax State at 3 p.m. The NCAA regional will continue in Hattiesburg at Pete Taylor Park.
