Tanner Hall strikes out career-high 15 in USM’s 12-1 win over Arkansas State

Southern Miss Sports Information

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Tanner Hall struck out a career-high 15 and Slade Wilks drove in five runs to lead Southern Miss to a 12-1 Sun Belt Conference victory over Arkansas State Friday evening at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The Golden Eagles (26-15 overall, 12-7 Sun Belt) won for the fourth-straight time as they have now scored in double figures in three of the last four games. The series continues with a single contest, Saturday, at 12 noon. The game was moved up two hours due to potential inclement weather expected later in the afternoon.

Tanner Hall kept the Red Wolves (15-23, 5-12) off balance over seven innings as he limited the visitors to a run on three hits and two walks for the victory in improving to 8-3. The junior right-hander did not allow his first hit until the start of the fifth.

The Golden Eagles pounded out 12 hits, including three from Nick Monistere and two each from Dustin Dickerson, Wilks and Rodrigo Montenegro.

Southern Miss scored 10 runs over the first three innings, including jumping out with a five-run first. The home team sent 10 men to the plate in the opening frame.

After Matthew Etzel led off the inning with a walk, Dickerson was hit by a pitch. Wilks then followed with an RBI single to open the scoring. Christopher Sargent then tripled to right to plate two more runs, before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Danny Lynch. Reece Ewing, who doubled later in the opening stanza, came home on a Montenegro single to end the scoring in the first.

Wilks drove in his second run an inning later with a sacrifice fly, plating Dickerson after he tripled. He then followed a run-scoring single by Dickerson in the third with a three-run homer to right to make the score 10-0. It was Wilks’ team-best 17th-best home run for the Golden Eagles.

After ASU scored their lone run in the sixth on an RBI double from Brandon Hager, Southern Miss responded in the bottom of the inning with a single from Monistere that scored Lynch. Pinch hitter Bryce Fowler drove in the game’s final run with a single in the eighth.

Red Wolves starter Hunter Draper allowed five runs on five hits and a walk over the first inning to suffer the loss and fall to 0-3.

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

Copyright 2023 WDAM. All rights reserved.