Southern Miss buries Miami before Hurricanes batted in NCAA Tournament

Southern Mississippi buried Miami with nine runs in the top of the first inning on their way to a 17-6 win over Miami on Sunday night. A nine-run top of the first inning for Southern Mississippi buried Miami. The Golden Eagles and Hurricanes will play on Monday night, with the winner advancing to the super regional.

Southern Mississippi drove in its first six runs with five singles and punctuated the inning with a three-run home run by Joey Urban, who added a two-run HR in the seventh to make it 12-5 Golden Eagles. Matthew Russo hit a solo HR in between Urban's to make it 10-0 Southern Mississippi.

A Tanner Smith solo home run in the bottom of the second inning made it 10-1. Miami added four in the fifth inning. Michael Torres had an RBI single, Jake Ogden drove in two with a double and Dorian Gonzalez drove in a run with a groundout. Derek Williams popped out to shortstop with two on to end the fifth.

Southern Mississippi added a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 13-5 but left three runners on base to end the inning. Miami scored a run in the eighth . Ben Higdon followed a sacrifice fly with a three-run HR for Southern Mississippi in the top of the ninth to extend the lead to 17-6.

Four players from Southern Mississippi had multiple hits, with Urban finishing with X hits and RBIs and Carson Paetow driving in three runs. Smith and Torres each finished with two hits for Arizona. Miami went through six pitchers, with starter Tate DeRias allowing all nine Southern Mississippi runs in the first inning.

Game time, pitching matchups, streaming and television networks have not been announced for the decisive regional final game. At least three other regional finals are playing a decisive game on Monday. Eight games were still being played on Sunday at the time the Miami game ended.