Offensive woes and struggles from the pitcher’s mound crippled the Golden Eagles as Southern Miss fell to seventh-seeded University of Texas at San Antonio 7-0 Saturday evening at Pete Taylor Park.
Earlier Saturday, Southern Miss was able to extend their season another game, defeating UTSA 8-7 with a ninth-inning run. However, UTSA pitcher Justin Anderson shutout the Golden Eagles, giving up only six hits and throwing a perfect eight innings in the evening game.
“That was a clutch performance,” said UTSA head coach Jason Marshall. “ That was a big-time performance, jus the resiliency of the whole ballclub.”
Within the first six innings, neither team was able to score.
In the seventh, UTSA (35-25) came to life. Roadrunner batter Jesse Baker singled to left field to begin the inning. Following a bunt, Baker advanced to second base and Logan Kindler walked. Then, second baseman C.J. Pickering blasted a single to left field, allowing Kindler to advance to second and Baker to third.
From there, John Welborn hit a two-run single to the right field, allowing Kindler and Baker to score to give the UTSA a 2-0 lead.
The Golden Eagles (35-35), who struggled offensively, made six of their seven total hits for the game before the seventh inning.
In the eighth, the Roadrunners took control and never looked back. Back-to-back doubles from Bormann and Baker increased the Roadrunners lead to 3-0. From there, due to wild pitching, a bases-loaded walk and error from Southern Miss, UTSA made a huge leap in the runs column, earning four to end the inning and seal the deal.
Southern Miss used six different pitchers in the game in which none of them were able to slow down the Roadrunner batters. The pitchers combined for a total of nine hits, seven runs and six errors for the game.
With the win, UTSA knocked Southern Miss from the tournament. The Roadrunners will now face their biggest task, squaring off against top-seeded Rice (40-18) in the championship game today at 1 p.m. The winner will receive an automatic bid in to the NCAA tournament.
Last year, Rice won the conference tournament but like Rice, UTSA looks to win its second, consecutive conference tournament. The Roadrunners were the Western Athletic Conference champions before moving into C-USA this past fall.
