Southern Miss baseball falls at Southeastern Louisiana from Shea Thomas’ walk-off home run

Southeastern Louisiana infielder Shea Thomas blasted a walk-off solo home run to right field to give the Lions a 7-6 win over Southern Miss baseball on Tuesday night in Hammond, Louisiana.

The Golden Eagles (18-11) tied the Lions in the top of the ninth when Ozzie Pratt singled through the left side and a fielding error from the left fielder scored Dalton McIntyre.

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Four pitches into the bottom of the ninth, Thomas walked it off on Southern Miss reliever Colby Allen. Southern Miss’ last two losses have now come from Allen conceding the winning run in the ninth inning.

“We tried to go fastball in there and obviously it wasn’t in enough,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said in his postgame radio interview.

Five Southeastern Louisiana (19-10) runs in the fourth inning doomed Southern Miss early.

Southern Miss led 4-1 through three innings until it needed three pitchers — Ben Riley Flowers, JW Armistead and Chase Adams — to get through the fourth inning. Those three pitchers conceded three hits, three walks and one hit by pitch. Add in a Billy Butler fielding error in left field, and that’s how Southeastern Louisiana scored the five go-ahead runs.

“We just got to find some guys that are going to step up and compete a little bit better on that mound out of the bullpen,” Ostrander said. “That right now is a glaring weakness that we got to figure out who is going to want to answer that call.”

Slade Wilks and Butler both hit solo home runs for the Golden Eagles. Wilks is one homer away from cracking Southern Miss’ top 10 career home runs list.

What channel is Southern Miss baseball vs. Southeastern Louisiana on today?

• Streaming only: ESPN+ (subscribe here)

Southern Miss baseball vs. Southeastern Louisiana start time

• Date: Tuesday, April 2

• Time: 6 p.m.

Southern Miss baseball score updates vs. Southeastern Louisiana

Probable pitchers (Southern Miss vs. Southeastern Louisiana)

• Cole Boswell (0-0, 7.27 ERA), RHP, Sr. vs. Aiden Vosburg (0-2, 6.11 ERA) RHP, Jr.

Southern Miss baseball schedule 2024

Next five opponents:

• April 2: at Southeastern Louisiana

• April 5-7: at South Alabama

• April 9: vs. Southeastern Louisiana

• April 12-14: at Georgia State

• April 16: vs. Nicholls

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Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball falls at Southeastern Louisiana via Shea Thomas’ walk-off home run