Baseball Dropped in the Bottom of Ninth by Southern Miss

Saturday, May 6

Hattiesburg, Miss.

3:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

29-15-1, 15-8

No. 20 Southern Miss

36-12, 18-5

Florida Atlantic

Southern Miss

5/6/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 6, 2017

Box Score

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - After recovering from a 4-0 deficit to take a late lead, the Florida Atlantic University baseball team lost in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday against Southern Miss, 6-5 at Pete Taylor Park.

The Turning Point

For the second straight night, the Owls (29-15-1, 15-8 Conference USA) were held to no runs on two hits by the Southern Miss (36-12, 18-5 C-USA) starting pitcher. But on Saturday, they got to the Golden Eagles' bullpen and would take the lead. A Jared Shouppe home run in the seventh preceded a four-run FAU eighth. In the frame, USM's Nick Sandlin had a stretch where he hit four out of five Owls, twice with the bases loaded to force two runs across, and Tyler Frank then singled in two more with two outs for a 5-4 advantage.

The Finish

The Golden Eagles were down to their final strike with a runner at second and two outs in the home ninth, when Mason Irby lined a single to rightfield. The tying run scored on the play and a fielding error allowed Irby to go all the way to third. Irby then scored on a wild pitch to the next batter to end it for the walkoff victory.

Notables

Shouppe had a 2-for-4 game with two runs scored
Also with two hits, in three at-bats, was Eric Rivera
Frank reached three times for the second straight game to go along with his two RBI
Drew Peden was fantastic in relief, bridging the gap from when the Owls were down all the way to the ninth. He pitched 3 1/3 innings and gave up no runs on three hits with two strikeouts
Peden followed a just-as-crucial Weston Clemente, who inherited a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the fifth and gave up just one run (on an infield single) while getting two outs before turning the ball over

Quotable

"Tough loss, (but) I was real proud of the way our guys played today," said Head Coach John McCormack. "Southern Miss is good team and you have to play a clean baseball game to win. We need to clean up a few miscues that cost us. We will be back at it tomorrow, I look forward to watching our guys play."

What's Next

The finale in Hattiesburg begins at 2 p.m. EST (1 p.m. local) on Sunday, with the pitching matchup of FAU's Jake Miednik vs. USM's Taylor Braley.