HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss was close enough to the College World Series to taste it, feel it, see it dancing in front of them like a sugary treat.

With each Wiffle ball-like slider from Tennessee’s Drew Beam and every 100 mph fastball from Chase Burns, it got a little further away. Two baseballs sent over the fence put it out of sight yet again.

Beam, Tennessee’s starter, threw six scoreless innings and Burns followed with 2 2/3 more. Zane Denton and Maui Ahuna homered, and Tennessee beat Southern Miss 5-0 on Monday night to win the decisive Game 3 of their NCAA Tournament super regional series at Pete Taylor Park.

Tennessee (43-20) is heading to Omaha. Southern Miss (46-20) is finished after losing a super regional series in its home ballpark for the second year in a row. It was playing in its seventh consecutive regional.

“It’s always hard to get back right where we are. I think that’s what so special about Southern Miss and the tradition that we have. We pride ourselves on tradition because tradition is consistency,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “We’ve been to seven straight regionals now, that’s pretty consistent. We’ve been to two straight super regionals that we’ve hosted. Starting to lay the groundwork on consistency there. It’s tough not to come back.”

The loss brought a disappointing end to Berry’s long and storied career. He announced in May that this season would be the last of his 23-year tenure with the Golden Eagles — the last 14 as head coach — and he was hoping to end it with a trip to the College World Series.

Unfortunately it concluded one victory short of that.

After the game, Berry tipped his helmet toward the fans and walked alone down the third base line one last time, absorbing the moment and wiping away a tear. Tennessee’s players and coaches joined Southern Miss’ fans in giving him an ovation.

“I was very, very humbled over that. Not expecting that whatsoever, but to me it ensures the relationships that I’ve been able to build with the people outside of our team,” Berry said. “We talk a lot about that if you want people to invest in you, you’ve got to invest in them and that’s the relationship that I feel like we have at Southern Miss baseball. We have a relationship with our fans and for them to tip their hat to me tonight, it meant the world to me.”

The teams split the first two games of the series — both played Sunday, after Game 1 was suspended by rain the night before — but Tennessee controlled Game 3 from the jump.

Beam gave up a leadoff single to Matthew Etzel in the top of the first inning, then struck out the side on nine pitches. He finished with seven strikeouts in six-plus innings.

Beam left after giving up back-to-back singles to start the seventh inning. Aaron Combs came out of the bullpen to face one batter, which he struck out, and then Burns went the rest of the way. Burns finished with four strikeouts. The three pitchers combined for only two walks.

Southern Miss did not score in the last 15 innings of the series after taking a 4-0 lead in the third inning of Game 2 on Sunday.

“I honestly thought that Beam, as far as starters, I thought he had the best stuff of the three and the other two were pretty good. The biggest thing is that the freebies weren’t there to build some momentum for us, we couldn’t string the hits together and that’s a credit to them,” Berry said. “Burns was a little different creature. Sitting there in triple digits, that’s pretty tough there with him.”

Griffin Merritt drove in Tennessee’s first run with a single in the second inning, and then two home runs put the game out of reach. Denton hit a three-run shot in the fifth inning to make it 4-0 and Ahuna added a solo homer in the seventh.

Tennessee will play its College World Series opener Saturday at 6 p.m. against Southeastern Conference rival LSU.

“We were not the number two team in the country in February and March. But the comment was that we very well could be that team,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “The whole idea was to understand what this group could be. We kind of carve our own way out by being a team that consistently makes progress and figures things out. That’s what they’ve done and it’s been a challenge. And about halfway through the year they took ownership of the team — the players that is — and they’ve continued to push forward and they have room to continue to do that.”

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
At Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, June 16
1 p.m. – Oral Roberts vs. TCU (ESPN)
6 p.m. – Virginia vs. Florida (ESPN)
Saturday, June 17
1 p.m. – Wake Forest vs. Stanford (ESPN)
6 p.m. – Tennessee vs. LSU (ESPN)