Rice University
17-9, 0-1
Southern Miss
17-6, 1-0
Southern Miss Defeats Rice Friday Night In Hattiesburg, 9-3
3/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 23, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Rice junior left-fielder Jordan Dodson belted a pair of home runs, but it was Southern Miss that hit its way to a 9-3 win over the visiting Owls in the Conference USA opener for both teams at Pete Taylor Park Friday evening in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Southern Miss jumped out to a 2-0 lead before a rowdy home crowd of 4,119 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Brian Dozier walked and cleanup hitter Michael Ewing homered to right field with two away.
Rice answered with a run in the top of the third with a home run to left by Dodson. His fourth-round-tipper cut the margin to 2-1, but the Golden Eagles came right back with two more runs in the bottom of the frame. After a walk and base hit, Luke Adkins doubled to right-center to stretch the lead to 4-1. The Golden Eagles added another run on a pair of hits in the fourth to make it a 5-1 game.
The Owls scored twice in the top of the seventh. Designated hitter Jess Buenger walked and Dodson blasted his second long ball of the night down the left field line to make 5-3. It is the second time this season for The Woodlands native to slug two homers in a game. He also had two in a Feb. 25 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Dodson has five round-trippers this season, but that is all the scoring the Blue & Gray could manage.
Southern Miss answered with four runs in the bottom of the seventh and closed out a 9-3 final. The Golden Eagles improved to 17-6 on the year and 1-0 in C-USA action. Rice fell to 17-9 with a second-straight loss and 0-1 against the league.
The second game of the weekend series is set for 3 pm Saturday. The first pitch of Sunday's series finale is 1 pm.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ryan Belanger (5-1)
L: Berry, Ryan (3-1)
S: Tyler Conn (2)
Batting:
2B: Gayhart, Jared 1
HR: Dodson, Jordan 2
RBI: Dodson, Jordan 3
SH: Reagan, Travis 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Buenger, Jess 1 ; Dodson, Jordan 2
HBP: Friday, Brian 1
Batting:
2B: Luke Adkins 2 ; Bo Davis 1 ; Eddie Burger 1
HR: Michael Ewing 1
RBI: James Ewing 1 ; Michael Ewing 2 ; Luke Adkins 4 ; Bailey Hartel 1 ; Bo Davis 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Brian Dozier 1 ; James Ewing 1 ; Michael Ewing 2 ; Trey Cuevas 2 ; Luke Adkins 1 ; Bailey Hartel 1 ; Eddie Burger 1
CS: Brian Dozier 1 ; Bo Davis 1
PO: James Ewing 1
