The ninth inning has been magical for the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss. For the second consecutive game, Southern Miss mounted a ninth inning rally to claim a come-from-behind win over UAB. This time it was a four-run effort that gave the Golden Eagles an 8-5 win that spoiled UAB's Senior Day.

All of the early scoring came in the first inning. Southern Miss opened the game with three runs on four hits in the top of the inning. The big blow was a two-run single by Bradley Roney. UAB countered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning by Patrick Palmeiro
The Blazers tied the score with a two-out rally in the sixth. Keith DePew started the rally with a two-out double barely in fair territory down the right field line. Harry Clark<./b> followed with a bloop single down the left field line to drive in the tying run.

Southern Miss regained the lead in the top of the seventh. Chase Flower opened the inning with a single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on a single by Michael Sterling to give the Golden Eagles a 4-3 lead.

UAB rallied again in the bottom of the eighth. Jeff Schalk opened the inning with a single and stole second base. Coy Arrowood replaced him as the runner, and he moved to third on a bunt single by DePew. Clark followed with an infield grounder to second, but the throw home was up the third base line and Arrowood scored the tying run.

Despite having runners at second and third with nobody out, UAB had to work for the go-ahead run. Matt Morse laid down a bunt on an attempted safety squeeze, but DePew was called out at home. Ivan de Jesus followed by striking out. But pinch hitter Ryan Prinzing drew a 3-2 walk, and USM pitcher followed by hitting John Frost to give UAB a 5-4 lead.

The lead didn't last long. Bradley Roney led off the next inning by hitting his second home run of the year on the first pitch from reliever Dillon Napoleon.

David Hayes was the pitching hero for UAB. He took over in the second inning and pitched five scoreless innings to keep the Blazers in the game. Michael Sterling added an RBI single later in the inning to score Fowler with the winning run. They increased the lead to 8-5 on a two-run triple by Mason Robbins.

Scarborough pitched one inning to get the win for Southern Miss. Dillon Napoleon took the loss for UAB.

UAB honored seven seniors prior to the game, including Hayes and Palmeiro. Former major leaguer Raphael Palmeiro was on hand to see his son hit a home run for the Blazers.


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