Samford eliminated from Regional by Southern Miss, 9-4

Samford’s run in the NCAA Auburn Regional ended on Sunday with a 9-4 loss to Southern Miss.

The third-seeded Bulldogs led 4-3 after five innings, but the Golden Eagles took control with a four-run sixth and added single runs in the eighth and ninth. Second-seeded Southern Miss (43-18) earned some payback for a 4-2 Samford victory in Friday’s opening round.

“I thought it was an outstanding college baseball game with two really good teams,” Samford coach Tony David said. “It really felt more like a one- or two-run game, for a game that finished up with five. And I thought both teams did a really good job of really hitting the ball with runners in scoring position. Ours just seemed to keep going right at people, or they would make a great play. … But it was a great game.”

Southern Miss advances to the championship round, and faces Penn late Sunday. The Golden Eagles must beat the Quakers twice, including once on Monday, to advance to the Super Regional round.

Samford (37-25) lost its second straight game to end the season, including a 5-4 defeat to Penn on Saturday night. The Bulldogs have never advanced to the Super Regional round.

“We have some guys disappointed out there, obviously some careers that ended today and seasons that ended for everybody,” David said. “... We’re a program at this point that feels like any time we don’t get to a regional at the end of the season, it’s disappointing. And what we saw out there today was true disappointment over not making it to a Super Regional. And that’s really what needs to be the next step for us as a program.”

Andrew Bennett’s two-run triple in the fourth — which narrowly missed being a three-run homer — pulled the Bulldogs into a 3-3 tie, then Lucas Steele’s RBI single in the fifth put them up 4-3. That would be Samford’s last run, however, as Southern Miss relievers Kros Sively and Chandler Dawson combined to shut them out over the final four innings.

Samford starter Will Lynch left with the lead after five innings, but hard-hitting Southern Miss went to work on the Bulldogs’ bullpen in the sixth. After two runners reached on a hit-by-pitch and a single, Nick Monistere laced a two-run double just inside the bag at first put to put the Golden Eagles on top 5-4.

After an out and another hit-by-pitch, Matthew Etzel lined a two-run single to right to make it 7-4. All four runs were charged to Jake Holifield, who pitched just two-thirds of an inning.

Samford put its first two runners on in both the seventh and eighth, but first Sivley and then Dawson wriggled off the hook thanks to some excellent defense behind them. Golden Eagles left fielder Reece Ewing made a sliding catch with two on and no outs in the seventh, while shortstop Dustin Dickerson snagged a hard liner with two on and one out in the eighth.

Sivley (4-1) got the win with four innings of one-run ball in relief of starter Matthew Adams, who gave up three runs in three. Dawson allowed just one hit over the final two innings to secure his first save.

“I would say his off-speed was a lot slower than what we’ve been seeing,” Samford’s Stephen Klein said of Sivley, a redshirt freshman left-hander. “He had a loopy curveball that we just weren’t used to. We’ve seen some sharper, but it was effective.”

Southern Miss tacked on runs on sacrifice flies by Rodrigo Montenegro in the eighth and Slade Wilks in the ninth. The latter came after Dickerson tripled off the center-field wall, a ball that Samford center fielder Josh Rodriguez nearly caught on a dead sprint.

Both teams flashed excellent defense, with Rodriguez making two diving catches and first baseman Klein a pair of diving stops for Samford. Southern Miss’ Ewing made a leaping grab of Garrett Staton’s drive to the left-field wall to start the third, while right fielder Carson Paetow made a circus catch of Kaden Dreier’s sinking liner to end the fifth, saving at least one run with the Bulldogs leading 4-3.

“In three of the last four innings we had two runners on base and hit at least one ball really, really hard,” David said. “But it just went right at them, and then we were just unable to capitalize on it.”

The game featured a 2-hour, 18-minute weather delay in the third inning, though both starting pitchers returned to the mound after the break. The score was tied 1-1 when heavy lightning followed by rain began at 2:44 p.m., with play resuming at 5:02.

Southern Miss scored first on Danny Lynch’s long home run in top of the second, with Samford tying it on Rodriguez’s RBI double down the third-base line in the bottom of the inning. The delay began with Montenegro on first and no outs in the third, then Etzel doubled to right-center on the fifth pitch after the re-start.

Dickerson’s sacrifice fly and Wilks’ RBI groundout put Southern Miss on top 3-1, but Bennett’s near-homer tied it in the fourth. The Bulldogs out-hit the Golden Eagles 11-10 (including two singles and a double by freshman Jayden Davis), but left 11 men on base to just five for Southern Miss.

The loss ends a memorable year for Samford, which won both the Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles. The tournament in particular was worthy of accolades, after the Bulldogs won three games in a single day to clinch the championship from the loser’s bracket.

“I don’t think it’s hit me that my career’s over yet,” said Dreier, a senior from Brentwood, Tenn. “But this year has been special in the fact that we had a lot of injuries early and I think it could have been super easy for this team to kind of roll over and check this year off. But the fight that we had, just day in, day out, it really made getting to this regional that much sweeter. And then after we beat Southern Miss, which is a good ball club, in the first game and we’re in the winner’s bracket, we knew we definitely had a chance to do something special.

“But kind of what Coach David said, I think we’re really just more disappointed — not that the year’s over, but the fact that we knew we could have made that next step.”