A three-run fifth inning by the University of Southern Mississippi helped the Golden Eagles (12-4) avoid a three-game sweep and defeat the LSU baseball team 5-3 Sunday at Alex Box Stadium. After going up 1-0, the Golden Eagles could not hang on to their one-point lead as the Tigers (11-7) tied it up at one a piece after junior first baseman Jordan Mayer blasted a solo home run over the fence in left-centerfield. LSU added another run an inning later to take a 2-1 lead after freshman leftfielder Blake Dean scored from third base on a wild pitch. Southern Miss’ 4-2 lead after a three-point rally was cut in half when junior shortstop Michael Hollander drove in Mayer making the score 4-3. The Tigers were shut out in the final four innings of play to end the game with just five hits. LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said getting just five hits in a losing effort is frustrating. “When you’re trying to build the program back to what it was, it’s a slow process when you take two steps forward and one step back,” Mainieri said. “I don’t think we played a terrible game today. To be honest with you, I felt like we pitched well enough to win.” Coming off a complete game shutout against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, junior Golden Eagles pitcher David Clark gave up four hits with three earned runs and struck out two batters in 7.2 innings pitched. Although Clark said the performance was not his best, he said being effective does not always mean a pitcher must be overpowering. “I didn’t really have all my stuff working – it was so-so today – but I got by with what was working,” Clark said. “But anytime you come into Alex Box Stadium and get a win, it’s a big win.” Clark held the Tigers’ first four batters to just two hits in 14 at-bats in Sunday’s contest. The lack of offensive production comes just one day after the Tigers lit up the Southern Miss pitching staff for 15 runs in a 15-8 win. Junior pitcher Charlie Furbush held Southern Miss to one run in eight innings Friday night to help the Tigers hold off the Golden Eagles, 2-1. After losing its first series this season, Southern Miss baseball coach Corky Palmer said his was pleasantly surprised with Clark’s performance. “Clark was the story of the game,” Palmer said. “I was impressed at how he kept a great team down. We squandered some opportunities – we out hit [LSU] pretty bad and should have opened it up – but he worked hard to keep us on top.” Although the Golden Eagles defeated LSU on Sunday, Clark said he respects what the Tigers have accomplished in past seasons. “You look at this field different,” Clark said. “They’ve got a good team – they lost to some team we’ve never heard of – and everybody was like, ‘Y’all are going to go down there and sweep them,’ but they played hard. They’re still the LSU they used to be, and they whipped us up for two games this series.” The Tigers host McNeese State University on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before opening up Southeastern Conference play. “We gave this game away,” said sophomore catcher Robert Lara, who, in the first time on the mound in his collegiate career, pitched 1.1 innings. “But we’re getting better every day, and once we start conference play we can’t let games get away from us like this.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]