Southern Miss takes care of Tulane, 10-5

Southern Miss Sports Information

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Nick Monistere helped Southern Miss rally from three runs down by hitting a sixth-inning grand slam to lead the Golden Eagles to a 10-5 come-from-behind victory over Tulane Tuesday night at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The Golden Eagles (29-15) won for the seventh-straight time as they swept the two-game season series from the Green Wave for the second consecutive year. It is the longest winning streak for the program since 15-straight victories at one point last season.

Down 4-3 in the sixth, Christopher Sargent and Danny Lynch each singled with out one. After a walk to Reece Ewing, Monistere drilled a first pitch from Tulane reliever Jonah Wachter off the scoreboard in left-center field to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good.

The grand slam was the first of Monistere’s career, the second in as many games for the Golden Eagles and the third for the team on the season.

Southern Miss then increased its lead with two more tallies in the seventh. After a leadoff single by Matthew Etzel and a double for Dustin Dickerson to put runners at second and third, Southern Miss first took advantage of a balk to score Etzel and Dickerson later scored on a throwing error on a comebacker by Slade Wilks to the Green Wave pitcher whose throw to first was wild.

Etzel, who led the Golden Eagles with four of the team’s 13 hits, added a run-scoring double in the ninth to give Southern Miss double-digit runs for the fifth time over the last seven games.

Tulane jumped out to a 4-1 lead through four and a half innings. The Green Wave got a solo run in the opening frame on an RBI-single from Brennan Lambert and then added a run-scoring double from Teo Banks before Simon Baumgardt added a sacrifice fly in the third. Another sacrifice fly in the fifth, this time by Banks, gave the visitors that 4-1 advantage.

Etzel led off the bottom of the first with his first double of the contest and scored one batter later when Dickerson singled up the middle. Southern Miss then cut the deficit to 4-3 in the fifth. After loading the bases on two walks and an infield single, Blake Johnson followed with an infield single of his own to knock in one run and Etzel walked to drive in the other.

Tulane (13-32) took advantage of a Golden Eagle error in the ninth to score their final run on a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Adam Ebling.

Kros Sivley (3-0), the second of three Southern Miss pitchers, threw three innings of relief and allowed the visitors an unearned run on two hits and two strikeouts to earn the victory. Niko Mazza got the start and allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits with a walk with six strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.

Justin Storm retired the final two batters of the game on strikeouts with two runners on base.

Wachter (1-4), who gave up the grand slam, allowed four runs on five hits with two walks to suffer the loss.

Dickerson added two hits, including his 56th career double, which tied him with his high school coach, Trey Sutton, for the sixth most doubles in a career at USM.

Southern Miss returns to action this weekend as its takes on Sun Belt Conference foe South Alabama at home. The series starts at 6 p.m. Friday.

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