Southern Miss squeaks past James Madison, 7-6

Southern Miss Sports Information

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Southern Miss got a pair of RBI from both Christopher Sargent and Danny Lynch as the Golden Eagles hung on to defeat James Madison, 7-6, Friday evening in a Sun Belt series opener at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The Golden Eagles (20-12 overall, 8-5 Sun Belt) won its first-ever meeting with the Dukes, who fell to 20-13 and 5-6.

With the Golden Eagles leading by two runs in the ninth, reliever Kros Sivley got the first pair of Dukes out on a groundout to second and a flyout to center. After a walk to Mike Mancini, only Sivley’s second walked surrendered this season, the Southern Miss left-hander gave up back-to-back singles with the second one by Jaylon Lee driving in a run to cut the deficit to a solo run.

The Golden Eagles then went to big lefty Justin Storm, who registered a strikeout to end the game and earn his first save.

Sivley, who came in for starter Tanner Hall in the sixth, allowed a run on three hits and a walk over 3 1/3 innings to support another strong starting effort from the Golden Eagles’ All-American. Hall gave up five runs (three earned) on a career-high allowing 12 hits with a walk and four strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 7-2.

Hall fell behind early by giving up a solo run in the first. After getting the first two outs, Fenwick Trimble singled and then scored on a single from Kyle Novak, whose ball to right field was misplayed by Carson Paetow allowing an extra base to allow the visitors to register the tally.

The Golden Eagles, though, took the lead for good in the bottom half of the frame with three runs. Matthew Etzel singled to open the frame. After a popout, Slade Wilks hit a comebacker to the pitcher Ryan Ertlschweiger, whose throw sailed over the first baseman’s head and allowed runners to move up to second and third.

With two outs, Lynch then doubled in both runs in the left-center gap and scored when Rodrigo Montenegro added an RBI single.

The Golden Eagles added two more runs an inning later via a run-scoring double from Dustin Dickerson and a run-scoring single from Christopher Sargent. Dickerson extended his team-high hitting streak to 12 games.

JMU cut the gap in the fourth with three runs of their own on five hits and took advantage of a Golden Eagle error, but Southern Miss pushed the advantage back to two runs, 6-4, in the fifth on a leadoff home run from Sargent, his fourth of the year.

After the Dukes produced two hits and an error to load the bases on Hall in the sixth, Southern Miss went to the bullpen for Sivley and got an RBI fielder’s choice to cut the deficit to one run before getting the Golden Eagles enticed a groundout to end the frame.

Southern Miss added its final run in the sixth on an RBI single from Etzel.

Ertlschweiger suffered the loss for the Dukes, falling to 2-1, after giving up five runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks with a strikeout over 1 1/3 innings.

Game two is slated to be played at 11 a.m., Saturday. The game was moved up three hours due to expected rain in the Pine Belt during the afternoon hours.

Want more WDAM 7 news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2023 WDAM. All rights reserved.