Doubleheader Dealing: No. 12 Southern Miss Dominates on Mound in 2 Wins vs. ULM

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – On a sunny Saturday at Pete Taylor Park, with a light breeze and temperatures in the low-70s, No. 12 Southern Miss collected two big wins against ULM behind an incredibly impressive performance from its pitching staff. The Warhawks came into this weekend with the second-best batting average in the Sun Belt Conference, but the Golden Eagles completely shut their bats down on Saturday en route to locking up another series win.

With the wins, Southern Miss improved to 33-14 overall and 15-8 in Sun Belt play. A few weeks ago, the Golden Eagles were sitting barely above .500 in conference play at 8-7, but they've turned up the intensity and urgency a good bit over these last three weekend series. The Warhawks fell to 24-23 overall and 10-13 in Sun Belt play.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Saturday's doubleheader, with insight from some of the biggest performers.

How Both Wins Went Down for the Eags

Kyle Morrison's solo homer in the bottom of the fourth and Matthew Russo's walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the 11th lifted the Golden Eagles to a 2-1 win in the opener, capping a tightly contested pitchers' duel highlighted by sophomore left-hander Grayden Harris and the late-inning poise of senior closer Colby Allen. It was Russo's third walk-off of the season. Then, just a few hours later, the Golden Eagles' pitching staff turned things up a notch.

Behind a career-best 15-strikeout performance from sophomore right-hander Camden Clark, the Golden Eagles rolled to a 3-1 victory in Game 2, piling up 19 strikeouts as a team, which tied the program record and marked the most by any Sun Belt pitcher in a game this season. It was also the highest single-game strikeout total by a Southern Miss pitcher since the Tanner Hall era. The Golden Eagles didn't just win on Saturday; they completely dominated, despite the close final scores suggesting otherwise.

Although pitching got the most attention in Game 2, the performance of senior outfielder Ben Higdon shouldn't be overlooked. Hidgon gave the Golden Eagles the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning with a two-out RBI double. Then, after being walked in the bottom of the seventh with one out, Higdon turned up the aggressiveness and stole second and third base back-to-back and scored an insurance run thanks to a Lawson Odom reach on a fielder's choice.

Grayden Harris Doing Grayden Harris Things

After getting off to a somewhat shaky start by giving up four of his five hits and the only run ULM scored through the first three innings of Game 1, Grayden Harris locked in and was nearly untouchable for the next four innings.

In seven innings of work, Harris finished with nine strikeouts, five hits and the lone run given up while reaching 106 pitches. The sophomore lefty showed great poise and mental toughness to battle through a relatively high early pitch count in order to stretch out his starting performance as long as he did.

What Was Working for Colby Allen

After stepping in for Harris for the eighth inning and finishing things out through the 11th, Colby Allen ended up with seven strikeouts with just one hit and no runs given up through those four innings of work.

"I had great command, and my fastball and slider both had really good movement. They played well off each other. I also thought Coach Leger had a great game plan against a good offense," Allen tells Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI.

"The message today was go out there and have fun. Coach Oz challenged us to play for each other and let loose. I felt like today, no matter the score, we played good baseball."

Camden Clark Continues Growing Into Starting Role

In college baseball, or any level of baseball, really, things aren't always going to go your way, no matter how talented you are. Camden Clark (W, 6-0) ran into that reality last week, as his second start of the season at South Alabama only lasted a little more than one inning. Clark spent this last week chomping at the bit to get back on the bump and redeem himself, and he did so in a big way by registering a career-best 15 strikeouts.

"Yeah, last week is the kind of outing you want to forget about, but in reality, you gotta use those to learn from," Clark tells Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI. "That is also something Coach Oz has talked to me about, just being ready to get out there again, to put the last outing behind me. So yeah, getting back out there was constantly on my mind all week."

A few weeks ago, Clark had a very impressive first start of the season against Texas State after transitioning from his closer role. However, he only made it to the fifth inning of that start, as stamina played a factor. However, Clark is putting in extra midweek work to improve that aspect of his game. On Saturday, he threw 105 pitches (83 of them being strikes) and made it through seven innings of work.

"My stamina felt really good this week," Clark said. "I feel like the work I’ve been doing during the middle of the week has helped that aspect tremendously. I even felt as if I was getting stronger throughout each inning and was at my strongest at the end of the game."

Regardless of how the Golden Eagles' bats are performing, if their starting pitchers are locked in, as we witnessed on Saturday at The Pete, this team is going to be an extremely hard out in postseason play. The importance of the emergence of Clark as a legitimate third weekend starter for Southern Miss can't be understated.

Junior RHP Josh Och came in for the final two innings of Saturday's second game and registered four strikeouts with just two hits and no runs given up. Overall, the Southern Miss pitching staff served up 35 strikeouts and just four walks.

Looking For A Sunday Sweep

Next up, the Golden Eagles will be trying to finish off this weekend's series against ULM with a clean sweep on Sunday. With App State also winning both of its doubleheader games against Troy on Saturday, Southern Miss must keep winning to maintain its No. 2 spot in the Sun Belt standings.

The game will begin at The Pete at 3 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more coverage as the series concludes.

Add us as a preferred source on Google