HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) – Southern Miss’s season came to an end Monday night 5-0 at the hands of Tennessee.
This was longtime head coach Scott Berry’s final game at the helm.
A recap of the game by Southern Miss Athletics:
Zane Denton belted a three-run, fifth-inning home run and three Tennessee pitchers limited Southern Miss to seven singles as they blanked the Golden Eagles 5-0 in the third game of the Super Regional to become the final team to advance to Omaha and the College World Series.
The loss ended the season for the Golden Eagles who finished the year at 46-20, while it also marked the final game of the 14-year head coaching era of Scott Berry, who posted a 528-276-1 mark and finished as the school’s all-time winningest coach in the sport of baseball.
The Volunteers (43-20) jumped out with a single run in the second inning on a dribbler through the right side by Griffin Merritt, which scored Christian Moore on the play. Moore opened the inning with a single and then went to second on a walk by Golden Eagle starter Niko Mazza to Denton.
A walk and a hit batter by Mazza in the fifth was followed by Denton’s blast to center, his 16th of the year. Maui Ahuna completed their scoring with a solo shot off the scoreboard in the seventh for his eighth of the campaign.
UT starter Drew Beam gave up all seven singles, but only walked one and fanned seven to earn the victory, throwing six-plus innings to improve to 9-4 on the year. After Aaron Combs got a strikeout, Chase Burns entered the game and threw the final 2 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and a walk to earn his second save of the year.
The Golden Eagles left 11 runners on base, including at least one in seven of nine innings.
Mazza suffered the defeat as he fell to 5-2 after allowing four runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts over five innings of work.
The Golden Eagles ended their season for the second-straight year in the super regional round, having reached its seven-straight NCAA Tournament and 19th overall in 2023.
