Southern Miss uses timely hitting and solid relief to top Samford, 9-4 in Auburn Regional

AUBURN, Ala. — Nick Monistere hit a two-run double in the sixth, Matthew Etzel followed with a two-RBI single and Kros Sivley and Chandler Dawson worked four innings of scoreless relief as Southern Miss beat Samford, 9-4 in an elimination game at the Auburn Regional on Sunday.

The Golden Eagles (43-18) advanced to take on Penn later Sunday. The Quakers are one win away from a berth in the Super Regionals. Southern Miss needs to beat Penn twice to advance.

Samford tied the game in the fourth inning when Andrew Bennett laced a triple to deep center field to score two runs and Lucas Steele put the Bulldogs in front in the fifth inning with an RBI single.

Sivley came on in the fourth inning in relief of Matthew Adams and shut down the Bulldogs after Southern Miss took the lead and earned his fourth win in five decisions. Chandler Dawson allowed just one base hit over the final two innings to earn his first save.

Will Lynch started for Samford (37-25) and allowed three earned runs on four hits and three walks. Jake Holifield (2-3) came on in the sixth but gave up two hits and four runs while getting just two outs and was tagged with the loss.