Southern Miss Outlasts Penn to Capture NCAA Auburn Regional 11-7 Monday Afternoon

This press release is courtesy of Southern Miss Sports Information Director Jack Duggan.

AUBURN, Ala. – NCAA Auburn Regional Most Outstanding Player Dustin Dickerson blasted a three-run home run, his fourth of the tournament, to break a deadlocked score in leading No. 2 seed Southern Miss to an 11-7 championship victory over No. 4 Penn Monday afternoon at Plainsman Park.

The Golden Eagles (45-18) won their second consecutive regional and third overall as they won for the 23rd time over the last 26 games.

With the score tied at 5-5 in the sixth, Rodrigo Montenegro led off the inning with a double. After a single by Matthew Etzel to put runners at the corners, Dickerson turned on an 0-1 offering that he blasted over the tall left field wall. It was Dickerson’s 10th home run of the season and sixth in the postseason.

The Quakers, whose season ended at 34-16, cut the gap to 8-7 with a couple of runs in the seventh on two hits and a Golden Eagle throwing error.

Southern Miss built some insurance, though, in the eighth by scoring three more runs on a bloop RBI single by Danny Lynch and a two-run double by Carson Paetow.

Reliever Billy Oldham threw three scoreless innings, limiting the Quakers to two hits with two strikeouts in earning the victory and improving to 8-3, while Will Armistead posted his second save by keeping Penn off the board for the final 2 2/3 innings allowing one hit and fanning five.

Tanner Hall got the abbreviated start for the Golden Eagles and he retired the first five batters before a Quaker hitter reached base via a throwing error by Dickerson. Penn then strung together three straight singles with the last two by Seth Werchan and Calvin Brown each driving in a run.

The Golden Eagles got one run back in their half of the second. Tate Parker opened the frame with a single. After two outs, Paetow was hit by a pitch and Montenegro drove in Parker with a single to center.

Penn, though extended their lead in the fourth as they opened the frame with three-straight doubles. Jarrett Pokrovsky and Ryan Taylor notched the last two as each drove in a run. A single by Calvin Brown extended the advantage to 5-1.

Southern Miss then struck right back as they put together four runs in bottom half of the inning. The Golden Eagles had their first seven batters reach base – on five singles, a walk and a hit by pitch – as Nick Monistere drove in the first run with a single. Montenegro then was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to knock in the second run.

Back-to-back singles by Etzel and Dickerson tied the game at 5-5. The Quakers had gone to the pen for their ace Ryan Drombroski, who gave up the Dickerson single on his first pitch. After that, he got an infield popout and a ground ball double play to end the threat.

Drombroski (7-3) suffered the loss by giving up three runs on five hits with a pair of strikeouts over three innings.

The Golden Eagles move on to the Super Regional round this weekend. Times, dates and site will be announced at 9 a.m., Tuesday morning via social media.

Here is the NCAA Auburn all-regional team:

Auburn Regional All-Tournament Team

• P: Tanner Hall (Southern Miss)
• P: Cole Zaffiro (Penn)
• C: Jackson Appel (Penn)/Rodrigo Montenegro (Southern Miss)
• 1B: Stephen Klein (Samford)
• 2B: Nick Monistere (Southern Miss)
• 3B: Danny Lynch (Southern Miss)
• SS: Dustin Dickerson (Southern Miss)
• OF: Lucas Steele (Samford)
• OF: Josh Rodriguez (Samford)
• OF: Carson Paetow (Southern Miss)
• DH: Ike Irish (Auburn)
• MOP: Dustin Dickerson (Southern Miss)