USM on a 13 game winning streak after sweeping ULM

Story from USM Athletics:

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Rodrigo Montenegrohad three hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead No. 25 Southern Miss to a 6-2 victory at Lou St. Amant Field Sunday afternoon to complete a three-game Sun Belt Conference sweep of ULM.

The Golden Eagles (35-15 overall, 20-7 Sun Belt) won for the nation’s best 13th time as they registered at least 20 league games for the seventh-straight season.

Carson Paetow got the Golden Eagles on the board first with a second-inning RBI double before adding another run in the third on a bases loaded RBI groundout by Reece Ewing.

The Warhawks (16-35, 5-21), though, got solo runs in the fourth and fifth frames. Jake Haggard accounted for the first run on a RBI single in the fourth and Zack Floyd tied the score with a solo home run off Golden Eagle starter Matt Adams in the fifth for homer No 5 of the year.

Southern Miss went ahead for good with two more runs in the sixth. Both Montenegro and Slade Wilks collected run-scoring singles to put the Golden Eagles up for good.

That also allowed Adams to earn the victory as he allowed a pair of runs on four hits with no walks and nine strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 3-2. Southern Miss the got three scoreless innings from Niko Mazza and Justin Storm fanned all three batters he faced to close out the contest.

Southern Miss extended its lead with solo runs in each of the final two innings, getting another RBI single from Montenegro in the eighth and a based loaded hit by pitch to Blake Johnson, who came in for Montenegro in the eighth, in the ninth.

Nick Monistere led the Golden Eagles with four of its 11 hits in the contest.

ULM reliever Chipper Menard allowed two runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings to suffer the loss and fall to 2-.6

The Golden Eagles return to action when they welcome Louisiana to Pete Taylor Park for the final series of the regular season starting Thursday at 6 p.m.