HATTIESBURG – The beauty of baseball is that you truly never know what will be in store from one day to the next. Less than 24 hours after scratching just one run by UC Santa Barbara (1-1) in a 5-1 season-opening loss, the Southern Miss (1-1) bats came alive in a big way at Pete Taylor Park on Saturday afternoon. After trailing 6-2 in the fourth inning, the Golden Eagles completed a massive comeback, ultimately winning the game 8-6 and forcing a Sunday rubber match.
“Man, I thought our guys competed hard,” Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said following the game. “We knew it was gonna be a fight coming into it. They get the lead, and it doesn’t look real good, but the guys kept competing hard and were able to put some things together. Get a run here, get a run there, get it close. And then finally our bullpen stabilized it (with) five shutout innings. … Really good to see. Very proud of these guys for staying in the middle of the ring and just competing their tails off today.”
Josh Och, Camden Clark Close Things Out On The Mound
Sophomore LHP Grayden Harris, who is expected to have a great year for the Black and Gold, got the start in this one, but it just wasn’t his day. He registered four strikeouts, but also gave up four runs on five hits before Coach Oz made a pitching change. Camden Suntrom came in for 2.2 innings, but he also struggled some, giving up two more runs on a two-run home run during that span.
Junior RHP Josh Och (1-0), who earned today’s win, deserves a lot of credit for how this one turned out. He only pitched the seventh and eighth innings, but he threw a shutout over that span, striking out two batters. Och got the Golden Eagles out of a jam in the seventh, as UCSB had two men on base with no outs, but ended up stranding them to keep the Black and Gold momentum going…