HATTIESBURG, Miss. (4/28/23) – Southern Miss surged to an early lead against the Arkansas State baseball team and did not look back route to taking the first game of a three-game series 12-1 Friday night at Pete Taylor Park.

Blake Burris led A-State (15-23, 5-12 SBC) at the plate with two hits of the team’s five hits and scored, but the Golden Eagles (26-15, 12-7) relied upon early success at the plate and a stellar start on the mound by right-hander Tanner Hall. The preseason conference Pitcher of the Year fanned a career-high 15 batters in seven innings.

USM tallied a dozen hits, led by Slade Wilks, who went 2-for-4 with two runs and five RBIs. Dustin Dickerson went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, while Chris Sargent drove in two runs on one hit. Second baseman Nick Monistere tallied a game-high three hits, scoring a run and driving in one.

The Golden Eagles struck for five runs in the first on RBI singles by Wilks and Rodrigo Montenegro, a two-run triple by Sargent and a sac fly by Danny Lynch. Wilks also drove in a run in the second on a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Reece Ewing to make it 6-0 after two.

Four more runs scored for the hosts in the third on an RBI base hit by Dickerson followed by a three-run blast to right by Wilks, putting the count at 10-0.

Hall did not allow a hit through four innings before Daedrick Cail ended the no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the fifth. A-State halted the shutout in the top of the sixth when Brandon Hager plated Burris with a two-out double, but was thrown out at third to end the inning.

Southern Miss answered in the bottom half of the sixth when Monistere drove in Lynch with a two-out base hit.

A-State threatened in the eighth with back-to-back two-out singles, but USM reliever Luke Trahan worked out of trouble.

The Eagles added a run in the bottom of the eighth when pinch-hitter Bryce Flower singled home Casey Artigues with two outs.

NEXT UP

The Red Wolves look to even the series against the Golden Eagles Saturday, with first pitch moved up to noon due to the threat of inclement weather later in the day. The contest will be broadcasted on ESPN+, while the radio broadcast can be heard on The Ticket Radio Network stations 95.3, 96.9 and 970 AM in Jonesboro, as well as online at 953theticket.com.

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