HATTIESBURG, Miss. –After winning four straight games, the Alabama
baseball team dropped its first road game of the season to Southern
Mississippi, 14-2, on Wednesday night from Pete Taylor Park. With the loss, the
Crimson Tide falls to 4-4 overall, while the Golden Eagles improve to 6-3.
Alabama starting pitcher
Case Nixon (1-0) took the loss in his first career start. Nixon allowed three
runs (all earned) on four hits with a career-high five strikeouts. The Tide was
led at the plate by Taylor Dugas, who snapped a three-game hitless streak,
going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.
The Tide used a total of
seven pitchers, as the staff gave up 16 hits. Southern Mississippi starting
pitcher Andrew Pierce (1-1) got his first win of the season, throwing 6.0
innings, allowing one earned run on six hits with seven strikeouts.
Southern Mississippi got
on the board with an RBI single by Travis Creel to score Chase Fowler in the
second inning. The Golden Eagles broke the game open in the bottom half of the
fourth inning, scoring seven times on six hits to open an 8-0 lead for Pierce.
UA scored its first run of
the game in the top of the fifth, when a single by Kenny Roberts scored Jon
Kelton from third.
USM's offense continued to
tack on more runs, as the Golden Eagles batted through the order for the second
straight inning, this time scoring six times in the frame to open a 14-1 lead.
The only other run of the
game came in the ninth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Cameron Carlisle,
scoring James Tullidge who walked earlier in the inning.
Alabama will continue its
four-game road swing with a three-game series at Tulane this weekend. The
series begin on Friday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (CST)
from Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Game two begins at 2 p.m. (CST), on
Saturday and the series finale is set for 1 p.m. (CST), on Sunday. The series
will mark the first meeting between the two teams since 2005. Alabama leads the
all-time series, which began in 1897, 60-26.
