Valparaiso pulls past Southern Miss, 6-1

Southern Miss Sports Information

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Brady Renfro blasted a seventh-inning grand slam to right field to help Valparaiso pull away for a 6-1 series-opening victory Friday night over No. 22 Southern Miss at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The Golden Eagles (8-5) dropped their second contest in a row as Valpo improved to 7-4 on the year.

With Valpo leading 2-1 in the seventh, Billy Oldham entered the game for Golden Eagles starter Tanner Hall. Oldham was greeted with two singles to open the frame. After getting the lead runner caught at third base on an attempted steal for the first out, Oldham sandwiched a strikeout between two walks to load the bases. Renfro then hit the first pitch he saw from Oldham to complete the Beacons scoring.

Valpo jumped on Hall for the other two runs in the first inning with three hits. After a leadoff single from Kaleb Hannahs, Nolan Tucker followed with a run-scoring triple to right field. Tucker, though, at home by the next hitter on a fielder’s choice. After a sacrifice bunt moving the runner to second, Jake Skrine delivered run-scoring single to give the visitors the early 2-0 advantage.

Hall settled down after that and kept the Beacons to five scoreless innings over the remainder of his outing and finished his outing by giving up two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts in suffering the loss and falling to 2-1.

Valpo starter Jacob Rosenkranz (2-1) kept the Golden Eagles in check for six innings as he gave up a solo run on a Matthew Etzel RBI single in the third. That was one of just two hits Rosenkranz surrendered to along with one walk and three strikeouts as he earned the win on throwing just 60 pitches of which 37 were for strikes.

Ryan Mintz gave up two hits and a walk over the final three frames with three strikeouts to earn his first save of the year.

The two teams continue the series with a 2 p.m., single contest Saturday.

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