HATTIESBURG, Miss. (March 7, 2026) – The University of North Alabama baseball team dropped the second game of the weekend series with No. 10 Southern Miss, 6-1 on Saturday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park.
No. 10 Southern Miss had only five hits, matching their lowest total of the season which came in their most recent loss to Nicholls, 3-2. This is the third-lowest batting average in a game for USM at .192; four of their hits came with two outs.
North Alabama (7-8) kept the game to a 2-1 USM advantage heading into the eighth inning behind the arms of Luke Davenport and Gavin Oswald that shared seven strikeouts.
Southern Miss (13-2) used a four-score bottom of the eighth to pull away from North Alabama and secure the series win on Saturday.
Davenport earned his longest outing of the season with 5.1 innings pitched. The sophomore had five strikeouts with three of them catching the Golden Eagle batter looking.
North Alabama had four hits in the game this afternoon with Will Millard, Petey Craska Wes Walker and Cayden Sheffield claiming one each.
Nash Rippen continues his streak of reaching base safely for his 12th game in a row.
Fireworks opened the game on Friday night while much of Saturday was a defensive slugfest.
It took three innings before either team got rolling in the noonday start.
Davenport sat down two Golden Eagles in the bottom of the third before the next batter had a solo shot to open the scoring, 1-0. Nearly the same happened with two straight outs before another home run in the bottom of the fourth for Southern Miss to create the 2-0 lead.
Two more innings of scoreless play before North Alabama added one onto the scoreboard.
Two outs in the first two at-bats for UNA before Rippen walked. Wes Walker put a tough one on the shortstop to beat out the throw and have two on for North Alabama.
Then step in the right fielder, Cayden Sheffield.
The redshirt freshman took a 3-0 count doubled down the left field line on the fourth pitch.
He plated Rippen to cut the lead to one, but Sheffield rounded second looking for the triple. Walker had rounded third but did not make his way home — Sheffield was caught in between second and third in a run-down situation.
Walker took off for home to alleviate the logjam but could not reach safely, ending the inning and the chance for the tie.
Southern Miss loaded the bases in the eighth with two walks and a hit batter; USM added one more off a sacrifice fly to add an insurance run, 3-1.
Another walk filled the bases before a base-clearing double from the Golden Eagles closed out the scoring, 6-1.
Will Millard found a single up the middle and Rippen found a second walk in the top of the ninth but could not add any more runs.
Pitchers of Record
W – Grayden Harris (3-0)
L – Luke Davenport (2-2)
S – Josh Och (2)
COMING UP NEXT
North Alabama gets one more opportunity against Southern Miss on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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