It was a tough weekend for Louisiana Tech (19-9, 6-3) as the Bulldogs dropped 2 of 3 games at Southern Miss (19-8, 7-2) in C-USA play.
Louisiana Tech went 14/93 (.151) at the plate offensively against a good USM pitching staff.
Golden Eagles pitchers only walked 7 hitters in 27 innings of work.
Let's take a look at how the series went down in Hattiesburg this weekend.
Game 1 | Hall keeps Tech hitters off balance as Golden Eagles take series opener 8-2
WIN | Tanner Hall (4-0) LOSS | Jonathan Fincher (5-1)
Tanner Hall was phenomenal on the mound in game one of the series for Southern Miss.
The right-hander fired 8 innings of 2-run baseball while striking out 11 Tech hitters.
USM took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning when Reece Ewing hit a 2-run HR to right field.
Trailing 5-0 in the 6th inning, Tech would add a run on a Philip Matulia ground out to trim the USM lead to 4.
Tech would get another run back in the 7th inning when Logan McLeod would score on a wild pitch to make it 5-2.
That's as close as Tech would get. USM would add 3 insurance runs in the 8th inning to get us to our final score of 8-2.
Jonathan Fincher suffered his first loss of the season for Tech after allowing 5 earned runs in 3.2 innings of work.
Taylor Young had 2 hits for the Bulldogs in the defeat.
Game 2 | Netterville's 3-run HR lifts Tech to 4-2 win to even the series
WIN | Cade Gibson (4-0) LOSS | Hunter Riggins (3-2) SAVE | Kyle Crigger (4)
Southern Miss would get 2 runs in the first inning before Cade Gibson would absolutely lock in with 6 straight shutout innings on the mound.
Trailing 2-1 in the 5th inning, Steele Netterville stepped to the plate with 2 runners on.
Hunter Riggins hung a breaking ball in the middle of the plate and Netterville crushed a 3-run HR to left field to give Tech a 4-2 lead.
That's all the run support Gibson would need.
The left-hander would allow 2 hits over his final 3 innings of work. For the afternoon, Gibson fired 7 innings of 2-run ball while striking out a career-high 9 hitters to earn his 4th win of the season.
Ryan Jennings and Kyle Crigger would cover the final 2 innings on the mound to preserve the Bulldog win.
Netterville finished with 2 hits and 3 RBI in the victory.
Game 3 | Bulldogs unable to solve Waldrep as Golden Eagles cruise to 8-0 victory to claim the series
WIN | Hurston Waldrep (3-1) LOSS | Jarret Whorff (2-4)
Hurston Waldrep was on top of his game on the mound for Southern Miss on Sunday afternoon.
The right-hander limited Tech to 1 hit over 7 innings of work while striking out 10.
Wade Elliott had Tech's lone hit of the afternoon.
Jarret Whorff really struggled on the mound for the Bulldogs. The right-hander allowed 4 ER in 1.1 innings of work.
On a day where offense was clearly tough to come by, the margin was just too much to make up.
A 3-run HR by Reece Ewing in the 7th inning extended USM's lead to 8-0 and really put the game out of reach.
Up Next
Louisiana Tech will host UL-Lafayette in a pair of midweek games this weekend.
First pitch is set for 6 PM on both Tuesday and Wednesday night.
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