Storm has 10 Ks, Southern Miss uses big 9th inning to stay alive at Auburn Regional

AUBURN, Ala. — Justin Storm pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with 10 strikeouts and Southern Miss exploded for eight runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat Pennsylvania 11-2 Sunday night at the Auburn Regional.

Southern Miss (44-18) has won three straight elimination games to force a decisive rematch with the Quakers on Monday for the regional title and a trip to the super regionals. Penn (34-15) had its 10 game win streak snapped.

Starter Niko Mazza gave up four hits and two runs before Storm (6-2) came on with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth inning and struck Seth Werchan and Calvin Brown to get out of the jam. Storm didn't allow a hit until Jarrett Pokrovsky hit a two-out double in the ninth and Ryan Taylor followed with a groundout to end the game.

Carson Paetow hit an RBI triple and then scored on a throwing to give Southern Miss the lead for good in the sixth inning.

Wyatt Henseler hit a two-out solo shot for the Quakers in the bottom of the first but Tate Parker led off the second with a double and scored on a single by Nick Monistere to make it 1-1. Werchan led off the bottom of the third with a double, moved to third when Brown followed with a single, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Cole Palis to make it 2-1.

Slade Wilks reached on a throwing error to lead off the top of the ninth and moved to third base on Christopher Sargent's single. Tate Parker followed with a two-RBI double and then scored on a single by Nick Monistere to make it 6-2. Dustin Dickerson capped the eight-run inning with a three-run shot that gave Southern Miss a 11-2 lead.