Mammoth Blog

Joey Archer drove in three runs as Southern Miss beat Florida 7-6 Sunday night to sweep the Super Region and reach the College World Series for the first time.

Down 6-1 after the third, the Golden Eagles rallied to win for the 12th time in 15 games. The run began shortly after coach Corky Palmer announced his retirement.

"It's been a great ride," Palmer said. "I don't know what happened three weeks ago. We just kind of grew up. We earned everything we got."

That included the berth in the Super Region. Southern Miss won its four-team region tournament as the No. 3 seed.

"We knew that they would be a scrappy team, just like ourselves," Florida third baseman and Armwood High graduate Brandon McArthur said. "You just have to congratulate them for their performance and wish them the best of luck in Omaha."

Archer had an RBI double in the fourth and a two-run single in the eighth that made it 6-6. With runners on first and third, Tyler Koelling followed with a grounder to shortstop Mike Mooney that should have been an inning-ending double play. But after Mooney tagged second, Preston Tucker couldn't field his throw to first that skipped in the dirt. That allowed Adam Doleac to score the go-ahead run.

The rally came against Bill Bullock, who entered with 11 saves and a 2.64 ERA over a team-high 34 appearances.

"If you had told me going into the day that we had a two-run lead with six outs to play and a rested Billy Bullock on the mound, I would have felt pretty good about it," Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan said of his closer, who didn't pitch in Saturday's 9-7 loss. "But you have to tip your caps to them." source>>>