HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Little Rock staged a four-run ninth inning to upset No. 1 seed Southern Miss 7-4 Friday at Pete Taylor Park in the opening game of the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional.
The Trojans, the No. 7 seed, improved to 37-26 with their seventh consecutive win. Blake Simpson capped the rally with a two-run homer to right-center, lifting Little Rock past the Golden Eagles, who fell to 44-16 and have now lost four straight NCAA Tournament openers.
Southern Miss led 4-2 going into the ninth but faltered after reliever Colby Allen entered. A leadoff single by Cooper Chaplain and a double by Kade Smith put runners at second and third. A wild pitch from Allen scored Chaplain to tie the game. Nolan Freund then singled through the middle, scoring Smith and giving Little Rock the lead. Simpson followed with his home run, sealing the victory.
Allen suffered the loss, dropping to 7-2. He allowed five runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. Starter Camden Clark pitched 5 1/3 innings for Southern Miss, allowing two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
Southern Miss took an early lead with a solo home run from Kyle Morrison in the third and a two-run shot by Joey Urban in the same inning. The Golden Eagles extended their lead to 4-2 in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Ty Rhoades and an RBI groundout from Angel Cano. Davis Gillespie hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Little Rock’s rally.
Tag Andrews earned the win in relief for Little Rock, improving to 5-2 after pitching two innings of scoreless ball. The Trojans advance to play in an elimination game Saturday at 3 p.m. against the loser of the game between Jacksonville State and Virginia.
