USM’s Scott Berry earned his 500th win on Thursday

Story from USM Athletics:
NORFOLK, Va. – Tanner Hall pitched 7 2/3 innings while Slade Wilks and Danny Lyncheach drove in a pair of runs to lead Southern Miss to a 4-2 series-opening victory over Old Dominion Thursday afternoon, giving its coach Scott Berry his 500th victory at the school.

The Golden Eagles (18-10 overall, 6-4 SBC) won for the third-straight time as they have opened all four SBC series with a victory. ODU fell to 22-7 and 7-3.

Hall limited one of the league’s top hitting teams to just a run on four hits with a pair of walks and seven strikeouts to garner the win and improve to 6-2 this season. After giving two singles and a hit by pitch in the opening frame in which he stranded the bases loaded with a flyout to left, Hall gave up a leadoff single to start the second and did not allow another hit until the eighth.

He only allowed one runner after that second inning leadoff single between giving up a one-out, eighth-inning homer to pinch hitter Logan Duffy. It was his first of the season. At one point, Hall retired 11 batters in a row.

The Golden Eagles jumped on sophomore left-hander Blake Morgan with three runs in the fourth. Wilks led off the fourth with a home run to right-center, his team-leading 11th of the year and seven in the last 10 games.

Christopher Sargent then followed with a single. After being erased on a fielder’s choice followed by a strikeout, Blake Johnson singled before Lynch drove both runners with a line shot double down the first-base line.

Wilks completed the Golden Eagles’ scoring one inning later as he drove in Matthew Etzelwith a scorching liner up the middle on a drawn in infield. Etzel opened the frame with a double and went to third on a Dustin Dickerson groundout before scoring.

ODU garnered another run off Kros Sivley in the ninth, who relieved Hall. After allowing a leadoff single to open the final frame, Sivley got a flyout and fanned a batter, before Thomas Wheeler smoked a ball down the right field line for a triple to cut the deficit. Sivley though, got another strikeout to end the game and earn his team-high fourth save of the year.

Morgan suffered the loss for the Monarchs and fell to 3-3 as he gave up four runs on eight hits with five strikeouts.

Berry, who is in his 14th year as head coach with the program, has registered winning seasons in ever season at the helm of the program and has 40 or more games in each of the last six seasons – not counting the COVID year in 2020 – which is the longest string of any Division I program.

The series is set to continue with a 5 p.m., contest Friday evening at Bud Metheny Baseball Complex. The game can be seen on ESPN+ and heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network.