24 hours after getting its best win of the season, the Southern Miss baseball team suffered its worst loss of the season on Wednesday night.
The No. 10 Golden Eagles – coming off a 7-6 upset over No. 4 Mississippi State on Tuesday night – fell to Nicholls, 3-2, at Pete Taylor Park. Going into the game, Nicholls was 6-8 while Southern Miss was 11-1.
Southern Miss jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Matthew Russo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Nicholls tied it up on a solo home run of its own, off the bat of Nico Rijo-Berger, in the top of the third. The Golden Eagles responded in the bottom of the fourth when Joey Urban hit a triple off the center field wall before an error allowed him to score.
However, that was the final frame Southern Miss would get on the scoreboard.
In the top of the fifth, Nicholls got on top with a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled by Russo and a Keegan Giger single that knocked in the go-ahead single.
Good pitching proved to be the story of the rest of the game as neither team’s relievers from the bottom of the fifth through the end allowed a run. Nicholls left Hattiesburg with the win, their second in a row over the Golden Eagles after winning 8-5 in 2025.
Thomas Crabtree (0-1) suffered the loss with three runs allowed on three hits, although he did strike out a career-high eight Colonel batters. Tyler Avery (1-0) got the win on the bump, retiring all nine Golden Eagle batters he faced in relief with three strikeouts.
“Credit to Nicholls. They earned that win. They got some hits when they needed to, some execution, and their pitchers did a tremendous job of mixing and keeping our guys in between,” Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said. “We didn’t show enough discipline there to just grind out some at-bats – something we’ve been showing. I don’t know if they felt a little pressure as the game stayed tight, but it’s something we’ve got to learn from for sure.”
Next up for No. 4 Southern Miss (11-2) is a weekend series at home against North Alabama that begins Friday night. On Tuesday, the Golden Eagles will host Ole Miss in another in-state, midweek matchup.