Southern Miss erases 8-run hole, tops Ariz. St. 13-12
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gabe Montenegro’s two-run single to right with two outs completed a stunning comeback and lifted Southern Mississippi to a 13-12 victory over Arizona State on Sunday in an elimination game at the NCAA’s Baton Rouge regional.
The Golden Eagles trailed 10-2 in the fifth and 12-6 in the eighth before Matthew Guidry homered with two on and two out to make it 12-9.
Southern Miss opened the bottom of ninth with two singles and walk to load the bases with none out, and reliever Blake Burzell hit Hunter LeBlanc with a pitch to force home one run. Danny Lynch’s sacrifice fly to right made it 12-11 and moved the tying run to third before LeBlanc took second on a pitch in the dirt.
Reliever Chaz Montoya struck out Storme Cooper before Montenegro, who went 5-for-6 at the plate, rolled a 2-1 pitch between the first and second basemen, sending Southern Miss (40-20) into a matchup with host LSU (38-24).
Southern Miss reliever Brant Blaylock (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win, while Burzell (5-1) took his first loss this season.
Matt Wallner hit his 23rd home run of the season for the Golden Eagles.
Spencer Torkelson had three hits — including his 23rd homer this season — and drove in three runs for Arizona State (38-19).
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