from SouthernMiss.com
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Southern Mississippi starting pitcher Christian Talley fanned 12 UTSA hitters and did not issue a walk in going the distance to lead the Golden Eagles to a 6-2 victory on Friday night in the opening game this weekend's Conference USA series.
Southern Miss (11-11, 3-1 C-USA) won for the fourth time in the last five games, as Talley registered the squad's first complete game of the year. The loss was UTSA’s second in a row following a four-game winning streak.
Talley, limited the visiting Roadrunners (15-7, 2-2 C-USA) to just five hits and six baserunners - the other reaching on a fielding error - and did not surrender a hit past the fifth inning. Talley retired 14 of the final 15 batters in the contest with the only UTSA hitter reaching on the Southern Miss error.
The Golden Eagles also did a nice job of manufacturing runs in the early going.
Connor Barron led off the bottom of the first with a double down the rightfield line on the first pitch from Roadrunner starter Brock Hartson. After a sacrifice bunt by Michael Sterling, Tim Lynch then knocked in Barron on a groundout.
The Roadrunners tied the game at one in the second with a RBI double from Mike Warren.
Eagles took advantage of a UTSA error on a failed pickoff that enabled them to take the lead for good a batter later on a Sterling RBI groundout in the third.
Southern Miss added two more runs in the fourth. Austin Rossel started the damage with a two-out walk, before Dylan Burdeaux struckout. The ball was in the dirt and instead of trying to throw out Burdeaux, the Roadrunner catcher threw down to second and it hit off of Roussel allowing both runners to move up to second and third. Dawson, who collected two hits along with Matt Durst, then doubled in both players to increase the lead to 4-1.
The Roadrunners cut into the gap again in the fifth with a RBI groundout from C.J. Pickering, but the Golden Eagles responded with a pair runs in the bottom of the frame on a two-run triple by Mason Robbins.
The two teams will continue the series with a 2 p.m., contest on Saturday.