Rain Shortens Play as Alabama Baseball Falls to Southern Miss, 6-2

On a rainy and wet evening, Alabama baseball came up short, 6-2, in seven innings against Southern Miss inside the Hoover Met. With the loss, the Crimson Tide now sits at 23-21 overall.

“The conditions were iffy, but we kind of rolled the dice and played in this sloppy weather,” said Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard. “Southern Miss did a good job tonight of executing and putting some good swings on the ball to build a lead. Wilhite had the big home run to get us close, but you have to credit Southern Miss tonight.”

The Crimson Tide put up a pair of runs in the fourth thanks to a two-run home run from J.C. Wilhite, but the Golden Eagles were able to counter with two of their own to claim the win. Southern Miss starter Cord Cockrell tossed 6.1 innings of two-run baseball, allowing six hits and three walks but striking out three on the way to his third win of the season.

The Golden Eagles struck first on the evening, plating three in the top of the fourth. A leadoff solo homer to left began the fourth inning rally for USM. One out later, Southern Miss strung together three singles for another run and then followed with a double to bring across the inning’s third run for the 3-0 lead.

Alabama bounced right back, with Kyle Overstreet recording a one-out walk to give the Tide a baserunner in the fourth. With two down, J.C. Wilhite stepped in and knocked his second homer of the season deep to left, nearly leaving the park all together, and setting the score at 3-2 through four full.

The Golden Eagles used two singles and an infield groundout to put runners in scoring position in the fifth. One more run would cross a batter later on another infield groundout, setting the score at 4-2. Southern Miss would add two more in the sixth thanks to a two-out, two-run homer to left to take the lead at 6-2.

Wilhite and Will Haynie each contributed two hits on the evening, while Georgie Salem and Casey Hughston tallied one knock apiece to round out the Crimson Tide offense.

“Tonight was disappointing, but our fate is going to be determined the next three weekends,” added Gaspard. “We have the personnel, and I think we have a spell in us where we can get hot going forward. It all starts with Arkansas on Thursday night.”

Alabama will welcome 23^rd-ranked Arkansas for a three-game series this Thursday through Saturday inside the Hoover Met. First pitch of games one and two is set for a 6 p.m. CT start on the SEC Network with Saturday’s finale set for a Noon first pitch on ESPN2.