Little Rock Plays Upset in Game 1 of Hattiesburg Regional

There's just something about Regionals; the fans are louder, the concessions are better, and there's a knowledge in the air that any team of any seed can go on a tear and advance to Super Regionals play. 4-seed Little Rock hoped to prove just that as they opened play against host Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg Regional at Pete Taylor Park. Both teams' pitching was the story of the first few innings, but eventually the offenses would take over as Little Rock would play upset in route to a 7-4 win over Southern Miss.

Camden Clark got the start on the bump for Southern Miss, throwing just 39 pitches through the first three innings with 28 of them being strikes. He also threw the 600th strike out for Southern Miss pitching for the year.

The Trojans would strike first, with a Nolan Freund single driving in a run in the third. Southern Miss wouldn't them hold the lead for long, as Kyle Morrison would homer 440 feet to left center in the bottom of the third. A Joey Urban two-run homer in the fifth would give the Golden Eagles the lead, and we'd head to the sixth with them up by two.

That would be short lived, as a sac fly by Ty Rhoades with the bases loaded would drive in another run for Little Rock to make it a one run game. They would tie it in the 8th, when Angel Cano would bring home Blake Simpson on a groundout. They would not hold the lead long, as a Davis Gillespie solo home run would give the Eagles back the lead.

The bats would come alive for Little Rock in the 9th, as a wild pitch by Colby Allen would immediately be followed by a single by Freund to give them the lead. Blake Simpson would then leave the yard on his 5th home run of the year, and we would head to the bottom of the ninth with the Trojans up by 7-4. Southern Miss would not be able to get anything going in the bottom of the ninth, and the Hattiesburg host would fall into the loser's bracket.

After the game, Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander talked about the resilience of their team. "I'm not discouraged with the way the guys competed. I'm not discouraged with their want and their desire, [...] we just didn't do enough."

Chris Curry praised the atmosphere at Pete Taylor Park. "Great college baseball game, great atmosphere. We've been fortunate over the past few years to play in some really big time atmospheres. Saw, I think, fans are here at 4:30 in the morning, 7 in the morning, and they were rowdy, but they were classy. [It] made it a fun atmosphere for these guys, made it tough on us."

Little Rock will play the winner of Jax State/Virginia; Southern Miss will play the loser in the first elimination game.