Southern Miss racked up eight runs in the first inning against Middle Tennessee, which would be all the Golden Eagles needed to earn the victory over the Blue Raiders Friday in Murfreesboro.
USM (32-12, 14-5 C-USA) added six insurance runs to take a 14-7 victory in the opening game of its Conference USA road series against MTSU (20-22, 7-12 C-USA).
The fateful first inning technically began with Taylor Braley's sacrifice fly to right field that scored Dylan Burdeaux. But the rally really took off with Matt Wallner's three-run blast to right field. With two outs, Matthew Guidry and LeeMarcus Boyd each doubled to bring in a run apiece, and Burdeaux capped the run-scoring bonanza with a two-run homer of his own to give Southern Miss the 8-0 advantage.