It can get quite heated in Mississippi on a muggy warm night in early summer.
Trash talk by the catcher, a warning to both teams from the umpire and a head coach ejection was a part of what will be a final conference tournament meeting between bitter rivals.
Originally set to begin at 4 p.m. CT and finally coming to a close shortly after midnight, No. 8 seed UAB fell to No. 1 seed Southern Miss, 4-3, in the opening round of the 2022 C-USA Baseball Tournament at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
UAB (31-24, 13-18) falls into the elimination bracket and will face the loser of Florida Atlantic-UTSA on Thursday in the nightcap. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
Jackson Reynolds (2-6) was tagged with the loss, allowing 4 runs on 9 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts, and Jonah Smith came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth. Smith gave the Blazers opportunity on the offensive end by allowing only 2 hits in the final 3 1/3 innings.
UAB got on the board first in the top of the second inning, taking a 1-0 lead with Caleb Floyd scoring on an error. The Golden Eagles responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame, scoring on an error that brought Christopher Sargent to the plate.
The Blazers retook the lead in the fourth frame on a solo home run by Christian Hall but allowed Southern Miss to exit the inning with a 3-2 lead. Blake Johnson tied the game at 2-2 on a sac fly from Carson Paetow and went ahead when a balk was called on Reynolds, scoring Paetow.
Dunn came onto the field to argue the controversial call and was eventually ejected.
UAB tied the game back up at 3-3 in the top of the fifth frame on Josh Sears’ 18th home run of the season but placed only two runners on base in the final four innings. The Golden Eagles powered ahead for good in the bottom of the fifth inning, 4-3, as Slade Wilks belted a go-ahead solo home run over the right-field fence.
Tanner Hall (8-2) got the start on the mound for Southern Miss and earned the win in 6 1/3 innings of work, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits while walking 1 and striking out 10. Landon Harper got the save (11) with 1 2/3 scoreless innings and the pitching staff as a whole, including 1 inning from Dalton Rogers, amassed 15 total strikeouts in the game.