Southern Miss baseball opens coach Christian Ostrander era with 4-1 win over Marist
HATTIESBURG — The Christian Ostrander era of Southern Miss baseball began with a win Friday.
The Golden Eagles and their new coach beat Marist 4-1 at Pete Taylor Park to open the 2024 season.
Ostrander replaced Scott Berry, who retired after 14 seasons as Southern Miss’ coach. Ostrander was a Southern Miss assistant coach for the previous six seasons.
Southern Miss took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, added a third run in the second and another in the fourth inning. It had only two hits but drew four walks and were hit by five pitches — three of which tagged center fielder Nick Monistere. Right fielder Carson Paetow and shortstop Ozzie Pratt were the only Golden Eagles to post a hit.
The 5,272 in attendance was Southern Miss' largest opening-day crowd in program history.
“I could hear them screaming at all the bullpen pitchers when they were running down,” Pratt said. “That just fired me up. It was awesome.”
Southern Miss opening-day lineup
Here's how Southern Miss opened the 2024 season, with Niko Mazza at pitcher.
RF Carson Paetow
3B Gabe Broadus
DH Slade Wilks
CF Nick Monistere
SS Ozzie Pratt
LF Davis Gillespie
1B Matthew Russo
C Lawson Odom
2B Nolan Tucker
Ozzie Pratt makes statement in first Southern Miss at-bat
Pratt, a transfer from BYU, wasted no time providing an impactful at-bat with the Golden Eagles.
With two runners on and two outs, he lofted a ball to center field that landed just past the outstretched glove of Marist center fielder Lewis Rodriguez. It was good for a triple, scoring both Monistere and Paetow.
Pratt also made a nice play at shortstop in the top of the first when he gloved a hot ground ball and threw out the runner at first to end the inning.
He finished 1-for-4 at the plate.
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Niko Mazza sharp on the mound
Mazza picked up where he left off last season.
One of Southern Miss' two preseason All-Sun Belt selections, he was in strong command all evening, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings with four hits, eight strikeouts and no walks on 85 pitches.
He didn't find serious trouble until the sixth inning when a pair of singles put two Marist runners on base with one out. Sophomore Colby Allen relieved him and retired the first two batters to leave the score at 4-0.
Marist's only run came in the seventh inning when Pratt threw a low ball to first base that resulted in an error. The runner scored four batters later on a fielder's choice before Allen struck out Rodriguez looking to end the inning.
Allen earned the save, striking out four batters in 3.2 innings.
"He was amped up a little bit," Ostrander said of Allen's outing. "He was kind of over-rotating on some of the sliders early, but settled in and did exactly what I expected of him and want him to do, which is pitch to contact and put 'em away when you can."
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 opens Christian Ostrander era with 4-1 win over Marist
