MIAMI, Fla. — Southern Miss has picked a bad time to fall into a funk.

Eddie Silva went 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and two runs scored, and six pitchers combined to hold the Golden Eagles in check as they lost 5-2 to Florida International on Friday.

Frank Chacon, the third of FIU’s six pitchers, worked 3 1/3 innings and got the win. None of the others threw more than two innings.

Dylan Burdeaux homered, tripled and scored two runs, and Tim Lynch had three hits for Southern Miss, which has lost three consecutive games for the first time this season.

Friday’s loss, combined with Marshall’s 4-3 win over Old Dominion, dropped Southern Miss out of first place in Conference USA.

Southern Miss (36-17, 20-9 C-USA) is one game behind Marshall (32-18, 21-8) with one left in the regular season. Florida Atlantic (36-15, 20-8) is also a half-game behind Marshall.

Southern Miss can still clinch the title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s C-USA Tournament by beating Florida International (27-27, 14-15) in Saturday’s season finale.

Florida International has won the first two games of the series.

Marshall plays Old Dominion and FAU faces Western Kentucky on the final day of the season.