Hattiesburg, Miss. – Connor Emmet collected three hits and Ben Ayala drove in three runs to lead Central Arkansas to a 6-2 road victory over Southern Miss Friday evening at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.
The Golden Eagles (4-1) dropped their first contest of the season as the visiting Bears (3-2) jumped out to a 6-0 advantage over the first six and a half innings.
UCA jumped out in front with two runs in the opening frame, coming courtesy of a two-out, run-scoring double from Emmet and an RBI single from Ayala.
Ayala increased the lead in the third with a two-run single, before Nathaniel Sagdahl added a run-scoring single of his own in the fifth. The Bears finished their scoring with a RBI double from Josh Ragan in the seventh.
Southern Miss got on the board in the bottom half of the seventh with a solo home run from Danny Lynch, his first of the year.
The Golden Eagles then rallied for two more runs in the ninth as the strung four-straight singles together – including RBI one-baggers from Reed Trimble and Matthew Guidry – before Austen Izzio fanned to end the game.
Guidry extended his consecutive games reached base streak to 61 games, while Trimble increased his team-best hitting streak to four games.
Southern Miss starter Gabe Shepard (0-1) gave up a career-high four runs on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts to suffer the loss over 2 2/3 innings of work.
Gavin Stone evened his record to 1-1 after giving up a run on three hits with four walks and eight strikeouts over 6 2/3 to notch the win. Conner Williams got the final out to earn his third save.
The series continues with a 2 p.m., single contest Saturday.
