Southern Miss baseball shuts out Coastal Carolina in Sun Belt Tournament

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Fans looking for stout pitching in the Sun Belt Tournament were given a treat Wednesday afternoon.

No. 2 seed Southern Miss baseball and No. 7 seed Coastal Carolina were scoreless at Riverwalk Stadium until the Golden Eagles' Slade Wilks hit a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning. Then Nick Monistere hit a three-run home run to lift the Golden Eagles to a 5-0 victory.

Wilks' go-ahead double on a 3-0 count extended his hitting streak to 29 games, the third longest in program history.

"Coach (Travis) Creel looked at me, saw what we wanted and I gave him the hit-away sign," Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. "I thought it was the right time to do it. He got his pitch, put a great swing on it and drove that opposite-field double."

Billy Oldham started for Southern Miss (38-18), going seven innings with one hit, two walks and nine strikeouts. Henry Weycker started for Coastal Carolina (34-22) and threw six scoreless innings with two hits, one walk and five strikeouts.

Southern Miss will move on to the next round where it will play Troy at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Trojans beat Appalachian State 6-5 on Wednesday morning.

Southern Miss, Coastal Carolina starting pitchers in control

Wednesday was the sixth start of the season for Weycker, and he didn't allow a Southern Miss runner until the fourth inning via a Dalton McIntyre infield single. Even after Southern Miss' second hit of the game from a leadoff double by Tucker Stockman in the sixth inning, Weycker got out of the inning with a sacrifice bunt and two groundouts.

But keeping the Golden Eagles in the game was their own starter in Oldham. At one point, he fanned five straight Chanticleers from the first to third innings.

While Oldham allowed two walks and one hit-by-pitch, only one Coastal Carolina batter advanced past first base when shortstop Ty Dooley stole second base in the third inning.

"We've grown accustomed to it," Ostrander said. "He's done a great job for us and is just a true pitcher. I thought was on display today."

Colby Allen relieved Oldham with two scoreless innings.

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Southern Miss' Carson Paetow misses first game of season

Southern Miss’ starting right fielder Carson Paetow did not play. It’s the first game all season that he missed. He went through warmups but had a wrap on his right wrist.

Billy Butler played designated hitter with Wilks moving to right field. It was Butler’s first appearance since April 30 against New Orleans because of a sports hernia. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Paetow, a junior, is second on Southern Miss in home runs (11) and RBIs (46) and his 43 walks are 13 more than any other Golden Eagle.

Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball blanks Coastal Carolina in Sun Belt Tournament