Coming off a rough weekend, the Lions were unable to gain any luck and fell short to No. 3 ranked Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles continued their school-record 15 consecutive games winning streak to claim 9-4 over the Lions on Tuesday’s at home. 

Leading off at the top of the second, with a home run and several hits off Lion’s starting pitcher, senior Hunter O’Toole, the Golden Eagles put up three runs on the board. 

With a switch of pitchers over to freshman Lance Lauve, Southern Miss steals three more runs. Bringing to count 3-0 in the top of the third inning.  

SLU held their ground, showing up to play in the bottom of the fourth inning adding two runs to the board. 

Head Coach Matt Riser noted with Lion’s slow start, “Once we got past the first couple of innings, we will be all settled in and played well. You know earlier onset, I thought we complicated some things and should be a lot better than we were.”

At the top of the fifth, Lion’s third pitcher of the night Andrew Yuratich led to bases loaded. Eagles sore into the bottom of the inning 7-2 with one run off one hit. 

With one runner on first, senior Tyler Finke hit his seventh home run of the season to finish off Lion’s scoring. Southern Miss used the same tactic, with running on base and ball out the park. Finalizing the score 9-4. 

“Our offense especially has picked it up this past month. I think we are hitting over 300 as a club and we’ve got to continue to do that, continue to grind out ab’s and keep it going throughout these next three series, and then into the conference tournament,” Finke said. 

Coach Riser will have to look past Tuesday’s loss and prepare for a weekend in Natchitoches for series play against Northwestern. 

Riser added, “Now let’s go win Friday night. I mean, we’re situated right now where it’s a must-win situation to have shot at this season title. We’ve got three weeks left and you know we can’t look at all nine games. We gotta look at the first one.“