3 reasons Southern Miss baseball faltered in NCAA super regional opener vs Ole Miss
HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss baseball leaves the first game of the Hattiesburg Super Regional with its back firmly against the wall.
The Golden Eagles (47-18) suffered a blowout defeat to in-state rivals Ole Miss (36-22), falling 10-0 Saturday at Pete Taylor Park.
Trailing 1-0 in the best-of-three series, Southern Miss will now play its fourth elimination game of the postseason against the Rebels on Sunday (3 p.m. CT, ESPNU/ESPN2).
Hurston Waldrep can't harness great stuff for Southern Miss
Hurston Waldrep suffered from no shortage of velocity or movement in his start Saturday.
That much was evidenced by the radar gun – where Waldrep touched 97 mph – as well as his strikeout numbers.
Waldrep's 12 strikeouts set a Southern Miss record for whiffs in an NCAA Tournament game, besting his own mark of 11 set last weekend against LSU.
Still, that didn't translate into a particularly effective start for the sophomore righthander.
He struggled to spot his fastball at times, and paid for it, with three of his four walks coming around to score.
In total, Waldrep pitched five innings-plus, allowing six hits and five runs – four of which were earned.
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USM's Reece Ewing narrowly misses grand slam
Before this game got out of hand, Southern Miss left fielder Reece Ewing thought he had one of the biggest hits of his life.
A drive off the bat of the lefthanded hitter cleared the wall in right, but was ruled foul, to the apparent astonishment of Ewing, who reacted with exasperation as he rounded first base.
A replay review confirmed the ruling, and the Golden Eagles were denied a moment that would have given them a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Instead, Ewing stuck out on the next pitch to leave the bases loaded.
The Golden Eagles crumbled in the next half inning. Ole Miss sent 11 men to the plate to score seven runs against three different USM pitchers, putting the game firmly out of reach.
Golden Eagles can't solve Ole Miss' DeLucia
Ole Miss starting pitcher Dylan DeLucia wasn't overpowering, but he was certainly effective.
Featuring a tight slider that kept Southern Miss off balance throughout the afternoon, DeLucia secured only his second scoreless outing of more than an inning all season.
He struck out nine Golden Eagles over 5⅔ shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks before he was removed by Tim Bianco in the sixth inning with 108 pitches on his ledger.
Southern Miss wasn't without opportunities to score against DeLucia, putting runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Crucially, though, DeLucia was excellent in those spots, holding Southern Miss to one hit in seven at-bats with runners on base while in the game.
Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball crushed by Ole Miss in NCAA super regional
