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Dustin Dickerson doubled twice and drove in three runs to lead Southern Miss to an 8-1 season-opening victory over North Alabama Friday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park.

The Golden Eagles won their eighth consecutive season opener as they banged out 11 hits in the contest with two each coming from Dickerson, Gabe Montenegro, Danny Lynch, Christopher Sargent and Reece Ewing.

“The energy the crowd brought was outstanding,” said Southern Miss coach Scott Berry, whose opening day crowd was 4,449. “There has been a lot of excitement leading into today and it showed. Real proud with our guys and how they came out. (Ben) Ethridge set the tone on the mound by covering six innings. He didn’t have his best stuff, but like I told him, he really had to pitch and that’s what he did.”

Ben Ethridge limited the Lions to four hits and an unearned run as he fanned six and did not allow a walk to garner the victory. Tyler Stuart tossed the final three innings and gave up four hits and fanned six to collect his first save of the year.

Offensively, Southern Miss jumped out quickly with three runs in the opening frame.

After a leadoff single by Gabe Montenegro to extend his hitting streak to 10 games dating back to last season, Dustin Dickerson then doubled into the gap to knock in Montenegro and went on to third following the throw home and extended his own hitting streak to 10 games in the process. Lynch then walked before Christopher Sargent added a sacrifice fly and Ewing finished the scoring with a run-scoring single.

Sargent knocked in his second run with a double to score Danny Lynch, who opened the third frame with a single up the middle. Lynch extended his hitting streak to 12 games, which also stretches back to 2021.

The Golden Eagles completed their scoring with four more runs in the eighth. After back-to-back walks to pinch hitter Matt Cedarburg and Blake Johnson, Montenegro followed with a sacrifice bunt and Dickerson then doubled in both runs.

Dickerson scored himself one batter later when Lynch line a pitch to left-center. Reece Ewing plated Lynch for the final run with a single of his own to complete the scoring.

UNA starer Will Haberstock allowed four runs on eight hits over five innings with three walks and two strikeouts to suffer the loss.

– @USMGoldenEagles/@SouthernMissBSB –