After two weather delays and a game suspension after four innings, Tennessee and Southern Miss finished Game 1 of the Hattiesburg Super Regional nearly 24 hours after it started.
After getting in more than four innings on Saturday, the game picked up Sunday in the fifth inning at Pete Taylor Park where the hosting Golden Eagles put the Vols on the brink of elimination with a 5-3 win.
There haven't been many lineups able to get to Andrew Lindsey since the Tennessee pitcher entered the starting rotation in April.
Two wins away from the College World Series, the Vols were going to ride with Lindsey in a critical Game 1, but an uncharacteristic performance allowed Southern Miss to jump out to a lead to hold it there despite a strong closing performance from Seth Halvorsen out of the bullpen.
Lindsey went 4.0 innings, striking out five but giving up four runs and six hits. Havlorsen took over the rest of the way on Sunday, allowing just one hits and a run with three strikeouts.
Southern Miss pitcher Billy Oldham was dominant in his starting effort. He limited Tennessee to two hits and a run with five punch outs in 4.1 innings. Justin Storm closed it out and picked up the win.
Southern Miss paid off a long top of the first inning with a Tate Parker triple to center field that scored two runs with two outs.
Lindsey appeared to have settled in, getting out of the frame with a strike out and tossing a 1-2-3 inning in the second but Dustin Dickerson added to the Golden Eagles' lead with a lead off solo home run in the third.
Nick Monistere hit Southern Miss' second homer in as many innings to put the Golden Eagles up 4-0 in the fourth.
Tennessee showed some life in the bottom half with runners on first and second and two outs. Christian Moore faced a 2-2 count at the plate before lightning was detected in the area, leading to the first delay.
When play resumed nearly two hours later and Southern Miss was able to get out of the inning without any damage but Zane Denton singled in the fifth to get a base runner on for Christian Scott, who saw just two pitches when the second delay started, eventually leading to the game being suspended late Saturday night.
Scott reached on a fielder's choice and Maui Ahuna was walked by new Southern Miss pitcher Will Armistead. Back-to-back hit-by-pitches loaded the bases and scored Tennessee's first run with two outs.
After mustering just one hit through four innings, Jared Dickey singled to center to score two more runs and pull the Vols within one at 4-3.
Southern Miss got one back in the sixth, leading off with a Parker double and scoring on a fielder's choice to pull ahead 5-3, but Halvorsen managed to strand two runners to prevent further damage.
Tennessee put runners on over the next two innings, including two after a Southern Miss error at second allowed Dickey to reach in the seventh but came up empty. Despite a strong performance from Halvorsen, who pitched three-straight 1-2-3 innings.
Tennessee will look to extend its season in Game 2, which is set for a 2 p.m. ET start on ESPN this afternoon.
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