In a showdown of the top two teams in Conference USA, Louisiana Tech showed Friday night that it wasn’t quite ready to concede the No. 1 spot to Southern Miss.

Mason Robinson capped a seven-run outburst in the seventh inning with a two-run home run, and Louisiana Tech surged past Southern Miss 10-6 Friday night in the opener of a key series at Pete Taylor Park.

Southern Miss (35-13, 19-5 C-USA) can still clinch the regular-season C-USA championship by winning the last two games of the series. It now leads Louisiana Tech (34-17, 17-8) by 2 1/2 games with five left in the regular season.

Southern Miss seemed to have Friday’s game well in hand, with a 4-0 lead and ace Nick Sandlin on the mound. Sandlin allowed a run in the sixth inning and struck out Chris Clayton to start the seventh, and then things unraveled.

An error, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases and finished Sandlin’s night. Mason Strickland came in from the bullpen, and the first pitch he threw was hit by Steele Netterville for a bases-clearing double that tied the game at 4.

Strickland hit the next batter and walked the one after that, although USM catcher Gabe Montenegro did pick one off first for the second out. Taylor Young, however, ripped a double to right field to give Louisiana Tech a 6-4 lead.

Strickland was replaced by Keller Bradford, and Robinson greeted him with his two-run homer to left to make it 8-4.

Southern Miss got two runs back in the bottom of the seventh on a single by Erick Hoard.

It left two runners on in that inning, however, hit into a fly out double play in the eighth, and struck out three straight times after getting the leadoff man aboard in the ninth.

Louisiana Tech, meanwhile, added to its lead with a two-run single by Parker Bates in the eighth inning.

Netterville led Louisiana Tech’s offense by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Taylor Young also had two hits and two RBIs.

LeeMarcus Boyd hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning for Southern Miss. Hoard and Matthew Guidry had two hits apiece.

Sandlin wound up going 6 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and only allowed two hits, but walked four batters and hit two others.