USM wins twice Sunday to play its way into regional final for 2nd straight season

AUBURN, Ala. (WDAM) - Sunday may have proved to be a long day for the University of Southern Mississippi baseball team and its fans.

But the day could not have worked out any better , as for a second consecutive postseason, the Golden Eagles won twice on Sunday to stay alive in an NCAA Regional bracket and force a winner-take-all championships game Monday.

The second-seeded Golden Eagles eliminated third-seeded Samford University, 9-4, in an afternoon game delayed nearly 2 hours, 20 minutes, by weather, before catching their collective breath and hammered late the previously unbeaten and fourth-seeded University of Pennsylvania, 11-2.

USM (44-18) will face the Quakers (34-15) at 2:06 p.m. Monday at Plainsman Park to decide the champion of the 2023 Auburn Regional.

Since losing the regional’s opening game, 4-2, in 10 innings Friday to Samford, the Golden Eagles have become executioner, ripping off three consecutive wins in the process.

Top-seeded Auburn University was the first to exit its own regional following a 7-2 loss to the Golden Eagles in a Saturday elimination game.

USM followed that up Sunday with a 9-4 win of Samford (37-25) in an elimination game and then used an eight-ruin ninth inning to put away Penn Sunday in a game that eneded around midnight.

Dustin Dickerson ripped a three-run home run in the big inning that USM entered clinging to a 3-2 lead.

Tate Parker broke the ice, driving in the inning’s first run with a double and Nick Monistere added a two-run single.

USM followed a similiar script in 2022, winning twice on Sunday, including a victory over an undefeated Louisiana State University team, to force a Monday showdown.

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