March 17, 2007

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss' Jody Blount led off the 12th inning and blasted an 0-1 pitch over the center field wall to lead the No. 26 Golden Eagles to a 2-1 win over Kent State, today, in the second game of three-game weekend series at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field in front of 3,241 in attendance.

Southern Miss closer Patrick Ezell (2-0) earned his second win of the season, pitching the final 2.2 innings, giving up one hit, one intentional walk and striking out two batters. Kent State relief pitcher Ryan Davis (1-2) was credited with the loss, pitching the final 3.1 innings, giving up one run on three hits, walking one and striking out two batters.

Golden Flashes starting pitcher Evan Smith pitched 5.1 innings, giving up two hits, two walks and striking out one. Reid Lamport came on in relief on Smith in sixth inning, giving up one run on one hit and striking out one.

Golden Eagle starting pitcher Barry Bowden pitched 5.2 innings, giving up one run on six hits, two walks and striking out seven batters. Tyler Conn pitched 2.1 innings of relief, giving up one hit and striking out one, and JR Ballinger pitched 1.1 innings of relief, giving up one hit and striking out one.

Southern Miss (14-5) scored two runs on six hits, while Kent State (5-10) scored one run on nine hits and committed two errors. The Golden Flashes left 14 runners on base, while the Golden Eagles stranded five runners.

Southern Miss was led by Trey Sutton and Blount, who both finished with one hit and one RBI, while Kent State was led by Gallas, who finished with three hits and Bartholomen finished with two hits and one RBI and Rohan had two hits.

In the top of the 12th inning, Bartholomen led off the inning with a double to right field, before he moved to third on a sacrifice by Andrew Davis. Anthony Gallas was intentionally walked and Rohan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Vasquez lined out to Golden Eagle second baseman Bailey Hartel, who threw it to first base to double off Rohan to end the inning.

Southern Miss set-up what appeared to be the winning run in the 10th inning when it loaded the bases without any outs. Trey Cuevas led off the inning with a double down the left field line, Michael Ewing reached when pitcher Ryan Davis misplayed his sacrifice bunt and Hartel was walked to load the bases. Bo Davis then ground to third baseman Andrew Davis, who threw it home to retire Cuevas and then catcher Will Vasquez completed the double play, throwing out Davis at first base. Ewing and Hartel moved up to second and third before Burger popped out to first baseman Rohan to end the rally.

Down 1-0 going into the bottom in the eighth inning, Bo Davis hit a one-out single to center field, stole second base and scored on Sutton's single to center field to tie the game.

Kent State scored the first run of the game in the fifth inning. Ryan Tokarz walked to lead off the inning, moved to second on Chris Tremblay's infield single to third base and scored on Bartholomen's single up the middle.

Southern Miss and Kent State play the final game of the three-game weekend series, on Sunday, March 18, at Noon.