Southern Mississippi pitcher Gabe Shepard departed from the mound to thunderous applause from the Golden Eagle contingent at MGM Park in Biloxi. Coaches hugged him and his teammates cheered their approval of his effort.
At a venue just more than 60 miles from his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, the freshman had just delivered the most impressive outing of his young career. With a trip to the Conference USA championship on the line, Shepard struck out a career-high 12 Rice batters, allowed no hits and walked just one batter to lead USM to a 6-0 win.
He shattered his previous career-best of nine strikeouts, a mark he reached May 14 against Troy.