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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The last time Tim Lynch smacked a walk-off base hit to win a baseball, he wasn't wearing a University of Southern Miss uniform.

Lynch took care of that Thursday night.

The senior first baseman lined a two-strike, two-run, walk-off single just inside the right-field foul line in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Golden Eagles to a 6-5 Conference USA win over UTSA.

"I actually think I had a couple in high school and maybe a couple in travel ball," said Lynch, not only drenched but dripping shaving cream after what was believed to be the first postgame pie-to-the-face/Powerade shower accorded a Golden Eagle at Taylor Park. "Definitely, to do it here at The Pete is awesome, and the fans are great, but to do it especially in a game like this. It's cool to hit the walkoff, but at the end of the day, we won the game, and that's what's it's all about."

Southern Miss (17-6, 3-1 C-USA) logged only its second one-run victory of the season but second in its last three games. The Roadrunners (10-11, 1-3) dropped their third consecutive game.

Southern Miss trailed 5-4 entering the ninth inning, but quickly loaded the bases.

Pinch hitter Tracy Hadley was hit by a pitch by reliever Patrick Herbelin to open the inning, and was replaced by Karan Patel (1-3), who walked shortstop Nick Dawson on four pitches.

Right fielder Dylan Burdeaux moved both runners over with a sacrifice bunt, and UTSA elected to load the bases by intentionally walking center fielder Jake Sandlin, who had shared C-USA's Hitter of the Week honors and extended his team-best hitting streak to 10 games earlier in the game.

The move set up a potential, game-ending double play opportunity, or at least a force play at any base, but also brought up Lynch, the Golden Eagles' No. 3 hitter who came in hitting .352 with a team-high 22 runs batted in.

"They had to do what they had to do, and set up the double play, and we would have done the same thing," said Southern Miss coach Scott Berry, who became the fourth Golden Eagles' coach to log 225 career wins and needed the fewest career games (369) to accomplish the feat. "Luckily for us, we had a real good hitter up, a veteran hitter, and I think that played in our favor more than anything,"

Lynch laced a 2-2 breaking pitch down the line, scoring Hadley and Dawson with the game-tying and game-winning runs, respectively.

"He'd been throwing a lot of breaking balls all night, so I had a feeling he was going to throw a breaking ball and I wanted to get the bat head out there," said Lynch, who improved to 4-for-4 in bases-loaded situations this season with five runs batted in. "I didn't want to let anything get in on me, and I think I've done a pretty good job this year of hitting with two strikes. I take a lot pride in not striking out, and I think it's a part of the game where if you don't strike out, the game rewards you."

Freshman Nick Sandlin (2-1) came out of the bullpen to throw 4 2/3 innings of one-run relief, giving the Golden Eagles a chance to rally after falling behind 4-2 in the fifth inning. "They had a good inning there, scoring the four runs, but we did a good job weathering the storm," Sandlin said. "It's always fun to walk it off."

Southern Miss grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, when third baseman Taylor Braley took UTSA starter Chance Kirby over the left-field wall for his team-best seventh home run of the season.

The Golden Eagles made it 2-0 in the fourth on left fielder Chase Scott's single off Kirby's shin, catcher Chuckie Robinson double to left-center and Braley's sacrifice fly.

But UTSA got to Southern Miss starter Nick Johnson in the top of the fifth inning.

For the third time in four innings, Johnson surrendered a leadoff single, this time to first baseman Matt Hilston. Nine-hole hitter, second baseman Bryan Arias, walked before right fielder Skyler Valentine extended his hitting streak to nine games with a run-scoring double. That ended Johnson's evening, and left fielder Ryan Stacy tied the game 2-2 off reliever Luke Lowery with a sacrifice fly.

After shortstop Tyler Straub was walked intentionally, designated hitter Jason Serchay laced a double to right field for a 3-2 UTSA lead. Center fielder Trent Bowles' grounder to the right side capped the four-run uprising.

Southern Miss got a run back in sixth, when Lynch singled, moved to third when Herbelin threw wildly on a pickoff attempt and scored on Robinson's grounder to second.

The Roadrunners tacked on a run in the seventh inning on a bloop double to left by Serchay and a run-scoring, two-out double by catcher Mason George, who was cut down trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

The Golden Eagles pulled within 5-4 in the bottom of the inning without benefit of a hit. Second baseman Storme Cooper walked and went to second on an error by third baseman C.J. Pickering on Dawson's ground ball.

When Burdeaux grounded to Pickering, Arias threw away the ball on the double-play pivot at second base, allowing Cooper to score.

Lynch was the lone Golden Eagle with multiple hits, while Serchay, George and first baseman Matt Hilston had two hits each.

The teams will play the second of the three-game series at 6 p.m. Friday.