Travis Creel clobbered his first career home run, a late-inning grand slam, to lead Southern Miss in an 11-5 baseball victory over Alcorn State here Wednesday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.
Creel collected a pair of hits and drove in five runs in the contest as his eighth-inning slam helped the Golden Eagles extend their lead in the contest. A pair of hit by pitches and a walk loaded the bases to help set up the decisive blow.
The Golden Eagles earlier had to rally from a 4-1 deficit in the contest before going ahead with two runs in the sixth before extending the lead two innings later. Southern Miss coach Scott Berry praised the redshirt-sophomore second baseman for helping them get their fifth-straight victory to start the campaign.
"He put a good swing on it didn't he," Berry said. "Travis is just a good team player and a true role player. I know he is going to give us 100 percent no matter what we ask of him."
With the score tied at 5-5, Southern Miss used a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead for good.
B.A. Vollmuth, who went 0-for-3 and saw a 24-game hitting streak snapped, was hit by a pitch. A single by Mark Ellis put runners at the corners. Then, Adam Doleac laced a ball to right that got under the glove of the ASU rightfielder, Kilby Perdomo, which plated Vollmuth from third and Ellis who came all the way around from first to score.
Ellis started the scoring with a first-inning RBI groundout in the third, though, ASU (0-4) strung together four consecutive two-out hits with Perdomo notching a run-scoring double and Rodney Warren, who finished the game going 3-for-3, added a three-run homer.
The Golden Eagles then began to chip away at the lead with a bases-loaded walk from Justin Diliberto to cut the gap to 4-2.
Southern Miss took the advantage one frame later with three runs. Tyler Koelling, who extended his team-best hitting streak to 16 games in the first with a single, led off the frame with a double. After a flyout, Ellis doubled Koelling home. Isaac Rodriguez then delivered one of his two hits in the contest, a RBI single to right field followed by an RBI single by Creel.
The Braves rallied to tie the game in the sixth with a run, but Chase Horn came in to get out of a bases-loaded jam to avoid any further damage. Horn threw 2 2/3 innings and allowed just one hit and fanned four to get credited with the victory.
ASU reliever Harrison Gary, the second of three Brave pitchers, suffered the loss to fall to 0-1. Gary allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and a walk with a strikeout.
