Tennessee and Southern Miss matchup in Hattiesburg Super Regional enters second lightning delay

The Tennessee and Southern Miss baseball game already had to deal with a 1 hour and 33-minute delay due to lightning on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately for fans in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the Hattiesburg Super Regional has entered a second lightning delay on Saturday evening. Play had to be stopped again, after Tennessee and Southern Miss took the field for 15 minutes following their previous weather delay.

Southern Miss has hit two home runs already, one in the third and fourth innings. The Golden Eagles currently lead the game 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Since the start of the tourney, Southern Miss’s middle infield duo of Dustin Dickerson and Nick Monistere have gone 31 for 86 (.360) with 15 extra base hits and nine home runs. Dickerson homered in the third inning on Saturday with a solo shot and Monistere blasted a solo shot in the top of the fourth inning off the scoreboard.

In the top of the fifth inning after the rain delay, Dickerson lined a double into right field.

The Tennessee Volunteers punched their tickets to the Hattiesburg Super Regional after they defeated the Charlotte 49ers and the Clemson Tigers in the Clemson Regional in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Their 6-5 victory over the Clemson Tigers in 14 innings was one of the best games of the tournament so far. Hunter Ensley’s RBI double in the top of the 14th inning lifted the Vols to victory in the instant classic.

The Volunteers have won three straight games coming into this weekend’s games.

Weather has wreaked havoc across several other college baseball games this weekend. They weren’t able to finish Saturday night’s game between the Vols and the Golden Eagles. Check out more below about that.

Saturday night’s game was moved to Sunday

Tennessee and Southern Miss are simply going to have to wait until Sunday to finish up Game 1 of the Hattiesburg Super Regional. The decision to put the game on hold overnight came after several lengthy weather delays.

The resumption of Game 1 will take place at noon at Pete Taylor Park. Southern Miss led 4-0 when the game was most recently halted, in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tennessee will have a runner on base and one out with Christian Scott in to bat.

The second halting of play came after just 13 minutes of baseball sandwiched between a one hour and 35-minute-long delay and what is now, technically, about an 18-hour weather delay.

Moving Game 1 into Sunday changes when Game 2 will be played.

The second game in the Hattiesburg Super Regional between Tennessee and Southern Mississippi will start on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time or 55 minutes after the completion of the suspended Game 1. 

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.