HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Southern Mississippi edged out Alabama with a nail-biting 6-5 win on Saturday, thanks to a late-game surge led by Nick Monistere and Tucker Stockman. Southern Miss found themselves in an elimination battle during the Hattiesburg Regional and managed to secure the victory with determination in the eighth inning.
The top-seeded Southern Miss (45-15) will now brace themselves for a Sunday elimination game against the team who loses between No. 4 seed Columbia and the third-seeded Miami Hurricanes. This win kept their postseason hopes alive and demonstrated their resilience.
Alabama, the No. 2 seed at 41-18, briefly took the lead in the seventh inning, courtesy of Bryce Fowler’s impressive two-run homer. Fowler was a standout performer, going 3 for 5 as the leadoff batter, but it wasn’t enough to fend off the tenacious Golden Eagles.
In the third inning, Alabama initially gained the upper hand when Will Plattner knocked a homer off Southern Miss’s starter, JB Middleton, making the score 1-0. However, Monistere quickly responded in the bottom half with his own two-run homer, reclaiming the lead for Southern Miss.
The fourth inning saw further action as Will Hodo of the Crimson Tide launched a two-run homer, pushing Alabama back in front at 3-2. Yet, Southern Miss’s Ben Higdon didn’t let this stand for long and tied the game with a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Middleton’s pitching stint ended after seven innings, allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out eight batters. The win, however, went to Colby Allen (7-4), who entered the game and held Alabama scoreless over two innings, giving up just two hits and three walks.
On the other side, Alabama’s starter Tyler Fay exited after allowing three runs from six hits over six innings. Reliever Braylon Myers gave up one more run in the seventh. When Carson Ozmer (4-2) took over following Monistere’s leadoff homer in the eighth, he conceded two runs from a hit and two walks in his solo inning on the mound.