Louisiana baseball shut out by Southern Miss, ace Tanner Hall in Sun Belt Conference game
Tanner Hall was a consensus preseason All-American for a reason. And Louisiana baseball found out in the opener of the final regular-season series at Pete Taylor Park Thursday night.
Coming into Hattiesburg off a big sweep of Texas State and a ton of momentum, Southern Miss and its ace squashed the positive vibes, limiting UL (35-19, 17-11) to just three hits in the 4-0 shutout victory.
The win edged the Golden Eagles (36-15) one win closer to clinching the regular season Sun Belt Conference championship and the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament in Montgomery, Alabama.
Louisiana and Southern Miss resume the series Friday (6 p.m., ESPN+).
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Tanner Hall bewilders Louisiana baseball lineup
For much of the night, Louisiana hitters struggled to find their balance against Hall.
Hall wasn't perfect, giving up the three hits along with one walk in eight innings, but he mixed up a masterful performance as he struck out 12 in a 114-pitch outing.
He shut out UL when it had runners in scoring position and only gave up one extra-base hit, to Conor Higgs.
Southern Miss baseball's Matthew Etzel puts his team over the top
Louisiana got a solid outing out of starter Jackson Nezuh, striking out five and giving up six hits. But one of those hits was a grand slam to Matthew Etzel in the fifth that was the only scoring play of the game.
For a pitching staff that has struggled to gain any rhythm that last month or so of the regular season, Nezuh was steady in the opener against Southern Miss and had one of his deeper outing of the season into the seventh inning with 106 pitches.
He just made a couple of bad throws in the fifth and Etzel took advantage of one.
Ragin' Cajuns remain in the top half of Sun Belt Conference standings
The Cajuns could finished as high as No. 2 seed or as low as the No. 10 seed for next week's league tournament.
They had an outside shot at winning the regular season Sun Belt title this weekend but needed to sweep the Golden Eagles. The loss in the series opener will prevent Louisiana from being able to do that.
With two games remaining in the season, UL remains in the No. 3 spot of the conference standings.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana baseball shut out by Southern Miss, ace Tanner Hall
