SAN ANTONIO -- Five unanswered runs in the middle innings lifted No. 27 Southern Miss to a 14-6 series-salvaging win over UTSA baseball, on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
UTSA (13-15, 5-4 Conference USA) fell shy of its first sweep of Southern Miss (17-8, 7-2 C-USA) but earned the series win after a 12-2 win on Friday and a 6-5 walk-off win on Saturday. The Roadrunners opened the scoring with a tally in the second but Southern Miss used two in the third and single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to build the lead and plated four in the seventh and four in the eighth.
UTSA starter Hunter Mason (1-1) worked 3.2 innings, allowing three hits and two runs, walking two and striking out two. Tyler Giovanoni and Jake Harrison worked in the fourth, with Harrison getting four outs before giving way to Ben Ostrominski, who got four outs before Cameron Carver opened the eighth.
Southern Miss starter Gabe Shepard worked 2.2 innings, allowing four hits and one unearned run, striking out three. USM also used Sean Tweedy, Alex Nelms, J.C. Keys, Jarod Wright, Hunter Stanley and Cody Carroll in relief. Tweedy (4-0) earned the win with 2.1 shutout innings.
UTSA will return to action at Texas State on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The Roadrunners took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, getting a one-out single to leftfield from Griffin Paxton, who motored to scoring position after a fielding error at first base with two outs. Shane Sirdashney followed with a two-out RBI single to leftfield.
Southern Miss took the lead in the top of the third inning, getting a leadoff walk from Hunter LeBlac and a single to centerfield from Will McGillis. After the pair moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, Matthew Guidry grounded out to the right side to score LeBlac and Slater doubled to leftfield to score McGillis.
The Eagles added on in the fourth, getting a leadoff double from Matt Wallner. Three consecutive walks and a passed ball allowed Wallner to score for a 3-1 lead.
LeBlanc scored on a two-out RBI single in the sixth from Guidry to take the lead to 5-1 in the sixth.
The Roadrunners got a run back in the sixth inning, getting a bases-loaded walk from Arias.
Southern Miss added four runs on two hits in the seventh.
UTSA answered in the bottom of the seventh inning, getting an RBI single from Garrett Moon with the bases loaded. Paxton's sacrifice fly scored Sturges, an RBI hit from Layton Barry and a RBI groundout from Arias cut the lead to 9-6.
Southern Miss added four in the eighth and one in the ninth.
- UTSA -
