University of Arizona Athletics

Oxford, Miss.-- The Arizona baseball team fell 14-4 to 25th-ranked Southern Miss in the opening round of the University of Mississippi's Spring Tournament Friday afternoon. The Golden Eagles exploded for nine runs in the fourth through sixth innings to put the game out of reach and drop the Wildcats to 13-9 on the season. The Eagles rapped out 14 hits, inlcuding three home runs, off of four Arizona pitchers to improve to 10-3 on the season.

Arizona scored first with a single run in the top of the first, but the lead was short lived as Southern Miss plated two in the bottom of the inning. The Wildcats tied the game at two in the top of the fourth before the Golden Eagles broke the game open, scoring two runs in the fourth and the fifth and five in the sixth for a 11-4 lead.

Freshman Marc Kaiser (4-2) took the loss for the Cats, snapping his winning streak at three games. Chad Rogers improved his record to 2-0 for SMU and Stephen Castleman picked up his second save.

Offensively, UA's Ernie Durazo extended his hittting streak to 25-straight with a 2-for-5 outting, placing him in a tie with Marty Hurd for the second longest streak in school history. Erik Torres went 3-for-5 for Arizona while Ken Riley finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and Brad Hassey scored a run and drove in a run on two hits from the leadoff spot. Southern Miss' Jeff Cook did the majority of the damage for the Golden Eagles with a 3-for-5, three RBI and four run outting. Cook, Darren Welch and Shea Douglas all hit home runs for Southern Miss.

The Wildcats return to action tommorow for an 11:30 game against host school Ole Miss. Freshman Sean Rierson will take the mound for the Cats.

-UA-