HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Zachary High School alum Tanner Hall struck out nine in eight innings for his ninth win of the season as No. 11 national seed Southern Mississippi beat Army 2-0 on Friday in the opening game of the Hattiesburg regional.
The Golden Eagles advance to face either LSU or Kennesaw State in the winner's bracket of the regional at noon Saturday.
Hall retired the first 11 batters, including six via strikeouts, as he spearheaded the Golden Eagles' eighth shutout of the season. He also retired the final seven batters he faced, including a 10-pitch seventh inning and a seven-pitch eighth. Landon Harper entered in the ninth for his 12th save.
Hall allowed four hits and walked only one batter.
Southern Miss (44-16) opened the scoring on Christopher Sargent's RBI double off the top of the left-field wall in the fifth inning. Gabe Montenegro, who broke the school record for singles (239), had a leadoff single in the sixth and later scored on a throwing error.
Three Cadets — Connelly Early, Trevor Finan and Steven Graver — combined to yield just one earned run. Sam Ruta had a team-high two hits for Army (31-24).
Going into Friday's game, Hall's strikeout-to-walk ratio of 11.82 was No. 3 in the nation. He was No. 7 nationally in total strikeouts with 130. The right-hander held a 2.69 ERA entering the regional.
Hall, who said he wasn't recruited by LSU out of high school, played with current LSU catcher Alex Milazzo and reserve infielder Collier Cranford at Zachary.