What started as a heavy lead over the Golden Eagles became a soar through the first game of the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional for Southern Miss on Friday.
The University of Illinois Chicago was holding a demanding lead at the 5th inning, 6-1. But by the end of the 6th inning, Southern Miss had tied it up.
The final score was 8-7.
Matthew Guidry came off the bench to drive in three runs and top-seeded Southern Miss (49-14) took advantage of three errors by the top fielding team in Division I collegiate baseball to snuff the fourth-seeded Flames (39-16) in the end.
“It’s one thing to be able to do this at the beginning of the season, not that those games aren’t important, but it’s another to be able to do this now,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “Neither club played particularly well, but at the end of the day it is about winning.
“You certainly take an ugly win over a pretty loss, and that’s what it was (Friday). I’m proud of our guys coming back from being down 6-1. When we went up 8-6 we were able to keep that momentum.”
They’ll advance to play the winner of Game 2 Saturday night at 6pm.
News Mississippi will continue to update.
