*Courtesy Southern Miss Sports Information
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — App State erased a two-run deficit to come-from-behind and defeat No. 16 Southern Miss 4-2 in a Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Championship semifinal showdown Saturday morning at Riverwalk Stadium.
Christopher Sargent had three of the Golden Eagles’ five hits as Southern Miss (39-17) lost for just the second time over the last 19 games.
Southern Miss jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the third.
Carson Paetow led off the inning with a walk. After a wild pitch got Paetow to third base, Matthew Etzel delivered a sacrifice fly, his team-leading and nationally-ranked eighth RBI flyout, to plate the first run. Dustin Dickerson then homered over the left-field wall for his fifth round-tripper of the year.
The Mountaineers (30-24) used 12 hits, though, to get back into the game. They cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the third. After a leadoff double and a flyout to move the runner to third, Hayden Cross knocked in the first run with a single.
App State tied the game an inning later on a sacrifice fly by Xavier Moronta.
The home squad then took the lead with two more runs in the sixth. After back-to-back singles, a bunt back to reliever Kros Sivley was thrown wide of third, loading the bases. CJ Boyd plated the first run with a single and Luke Drumheller followed with a sacrifice fly to complete the scoring.
Sivley suffered the loss as he threw the final four innings in relief of Matt Adams, who also threw four frames, giving up two unearned runs on three hits and two strikeouts to fall to 3-1.
App State reliever Grey LaSpaluto threw four innings and surrendered a run on three hits with three walks to earn the victory and improve to 2-2. Jackson Steensma retired all three batters he faced in the final inning to earn his seventh save.
The two teams will meet again at 4 p.m., Saturday with the winner to meet either Coastal Carolina or Louisiana in Sunday’s 1 p.m. final. The game can be seen on ESPN+.