Southern Miss Beats Georgia State 7-6 to Open Sun Belt Tournament

Montgomery, Ala. — Matthew Russo drove in four runs as Southern Miss defeated Georgia State 7-6 Wednesday night at DABOS Park in the opening game of the Sun Belt Baseball Championship.

The Golden Eagles, ranked No. 8 and the top seed, extended their conference tournament winning streak to 40 games. Due to a lengthy game prior and a rain delay in the third inning, the day’s final game between Troy and South Alabama was moved to Thursday morning. The winner will face Southern Miss at 11 a.m. Friday.

Southern Miss trailed 4-2 before scoring in each of their last four at-bats to secure the victory. Russo’s go-ahead RBI single in the seventh put the Eagles ahead, and Ben Higdon added a run-scoring single to make it 6-4. Colby Allen pitched the final 2 1/3 innings to earn his sixth win, allowing two runs on six hits with three strikeouts.

The Eagles scored first in the bottom of the first inning, with Seth Smith and Kyle Morrison each contributing key hits. Georgia State responded in the third with two runs, tying the game, and took the lead in the fourth. Morrison’s solo home run in the sixth tied the game at 4-4.

Georgia State closed the gap in the eighth with an RBI single from Nick Garagozzo. Russo’s groundout in the bottom half pushed the lead back to two runs. The Panthers scored one final run in the ninth before Allen struck out the final batter to end the game.

Allen improved to 6-1, allowing two runs on six hits. The win marked Southern Miss’s 10th consecutive victory. The team now holds a 41-14 record heading into the next round of the tournament.

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