HOUSTON - It was a ballgame that spanned three hours and 26 minutes while lasting a league-record 11-innings, but for homestanding and top-seeded Rice it was worth every second as the Owls claimed a 5-4 walk-off win over No. 2 seed Southern Miss in the 2013 Conference USA Baseball Championship title game on Sunday afternoon at Reckling Park. With the score knotted at 4-all and runners on the corner, left fielder Keenan Cook laced an RBI-single just over the outstretched arm of Golden Eagle second baseman Isaac Rodriguez to spark the Owls' celebration. In victory, Rice improves to 41-17 and earns C-USA's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. Southern Miss concludes its 2013 campaign with a record of 30-27. The 2013 title is the fifth postseason league title since joining C-USA in 2006 and the ninth overall as Rice won the final Southwest Conference championship in 1996 and the Western Athletic Conference crowns from 1997-99 before the league ceased holding its tournament. The automatic bid ensures the Owls of their 19th consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals and they will learn of their postseason destination on Monday when the NCAA Selection Committee announces the field of 64 on live on ESPN at 11 a.m. The Owls trailed 4-3 after six and a half innings, Rice tied the score in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly off the bat of third baseman Shane Hoelscher and it remained tied over the next three frames. After Southern Miss went down in order in the top of the 11th, Owls' shortstop Ford Stainback reached first on a one-out fielders' choice grounder and went to third on a single by second baseman Christian Stringer in the ensuing at-bat. That set the stage for Cook, who was mobbed by his teammates beyond the first-base bag as the 2,057 fans on hand erupted. Stringer was voted C-USA Championship Most Valuable Player after hitting .500 (7-for-14) with an RBI, a stolen base and five runs scored. Fellow Owls joining him on the All-Tournament Team were Hoelscher, centerfielder Leon Byrd as well as pitchers Austin Kubitza, John Simms and Jordan Stephens. Rounding out the squad were Southern Miss outfielders Blake Brown and Dillon Day, Golden Eagles hurler Jake Drehoff, Memphis catcher Keaton Aldridge, as well as East Carolina infielder Zach Houchins and designated hitter Drew Reynolds. The Owls defense committed a season-high tying three errors which led to as many unearned runs for Southern Miss, but Rice was able to capitalize on 10 walks and a hit batsmen to come away on top. Reliever Zech Lemond (5-1) earned the victory out of the bullpen after allowing an unearned run on four hits and a walk while striking out a pair in a career-long 6.2-inning effort. Both teams tallied seven hits with Southern Miss' Brown leading all players with three and Stainback pacing the Owls with two. Hoelscher drove in a pair of runs, adding a bases-loaded walk to plate the contest's first run in the home half of the initial inning to his game-winner 10 innings later. Stainback opened the bottom of the first with a single through the right side of the infield, Stringer followed with a walk and Cook moved the pair into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Southern Miss starter Conor Fisk fell behind in the count to right fielder Michael Ratterree before eventually issuing an intentional walk, and Hoelscher and Byrd followed with walks of their own to stake the home team to a 2-0 advantage. Rice padded its lead two innings later when Ratterree opened the frame with a double to right centerfield and scored on a double-play ball two hitters later. Southern Miss took advantage of the Owls' first error of the contest in the top of the fourth as Day hit a leadoff single up the middle moved to second on a groundout to the pitcher and second baseman Isaac Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to put a pair of runners on base. Golden Eagles' right fielder Mason Robbins hit into a potential inning-ending double play, but Stringer's throw struck Rodriguez in the back, which not only allowed the runner to move to second but Day to score from 180 feet away, and Brown followed with a RBI-double down the left-field line to cut the deficit to 3-2. The Golden Eagles tied the score an inning later when third baseman Bradley Roney was hit by a pitch, advanced the bases on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch and came around to touch the paystation on an RBI-single through the left side of the infield. The team from Hattiesburg, Miss., put the first two runners on in the ensuing frame was Stainback mishandled consecutive groundballs hit straight at him to open the inning and USM first baseman Tim Lynch gave his team the lead with a sacrifice fly to right. That, however, would be the final tally of the day for the Golden Eagles as Lemond allowed just two hits and an intentional walk over the final five innings. Lost in the excitement of the extra-inning drama was a stellar pitching performance by Southern Miss reliever Andrew Pierce. After starting Wednesday's opening-round game against Tulane, Pierce came on for Fisk with a runner on and nobody out in the fourth. He tossed 4.1 no-hit innings and struck out three but walked six, one of which scored when Stringer slapped the plate on Hoelscher's fly ball in the seventh to tie the contest at 4-4. Nick Johnson (2-1), the last of three Golden Eagles pitchers to toe the rubber on Sunday, was saddled with the loss after giving up one run on two hits to go with a strikeout over the final 3.1 innings. 2013 Conference USA Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team C: Keaton Aldridge, Memphis INF: Shane Hoelscher, Rice INF: Zach Houchins, East Carolina INF: Justin Montemayor, Houston INF Christian Stringer, Rice OF: Blake Brown, Southern Miss OF: Leon Byrd, Rice OF: Dillon Day, Southern Miss DH: Drew Reynolds, East Carolina P: Jake Drehoff, Southern Miss P: Austin Kubitza, Rice P: John Simms, Rice P: Jordan Stephens, Rice MVP: Christian Stringer, Rice

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. - Gerald West held the laminated sheet of paper fellow World War II combat veteran Robert Addison pulled from an old briefcase and perused the 300-plus names listed under the words, "Lest We Forget." "I knew quite a few of those guys," said West, 93, who made the short drive to Addison's home 45 miles north of Albany recently to reminisce about their wartime service with the legendary Edson's Raiders, an elite Marine Corps unit that was the forerunnner of today's U.S. Special Forces. The document Addison keeps among his wartime mementos and literature lists the names of members of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion who died while fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific. Addison and West are among the dwindling number of Edson's Raiders still alive. Out of an original roster of about 900 men, fewer than 150 are believed to survive, according to Bruce Burlingham, historian for U.S. Marine Raider Association. Dubbed Edson's Raiders after their colorful, red-haired commander, Col. Merritt "Red Mike" Edson, the unit was the first U.S. ground force to attack Japan-held territory after Pearl Harbor. Landing on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands in August 1942, they beat the larger 1st Marine Division's arrival on nearby Guadalcanal by an hour. The 1st and 2nd Raider battalions, formed just days apart in February 1942, were the first commando-style units in the American military, predating the creation of the U.S. Army Rangers by four months. Trained in jungle warfare and hand-to-hand combat, the Raiders' leatherneck pride paired with a pirate's attitude was reflected in their distinctive battalion patch: a white death's head skull in a red diamond, set against a blue background with five white stars representing the Southern Cross constellation. Addison, an Alliance, Ohio, native, and West, who grew up outside Glens Falls, both fought at Tulagi and later on Guadalcanal, where Edson's Raiders earned their vaunted place in American military lore for anchoring the thinly stretched Marine defenses that decimated Japanese forces during successive nighttime assaults in September 1942. Fighting from positions separated by a few hundred yards along high ground near the island's airfield, Addison and West helped defend what became known as Bloody Ridge - but that the Marines called "Edson's Ridge." They wouldn't learn until much later that the fight was considered a turning point that started the U.S. on its island-hopping road to victory in the Pacific. "In combat, you only know what's going on in your little world," West said. Edson was awarded the Medal of Honor for his front-line leadership during the battle, during which his Raiders suffered more than 250 killed and wounded. Bigger, bloodier battles awaited, but Edson's Ridge and the Raiders hold a special place among leathernecks of all generations, according to Beth Crumley, a historian with the U.S. Marine Corps History Division. "Anybody who has taken an interest in the history of the corps, they're going to know the story about Edson and they're going to know about the Raiders and know about the Battle of Edson's Ridge," she said. After the Raiders' next campaign on the island of New Georgia in the summer of 1943, Addison and West were sent back to the U.S. Addison was attending college as part of an officers program, and West was in Guam preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. They went their separate ways and didn't get reacquainted until the early 1960s, when Addison moved to Glens Falls to become athletic director at a new community college. He ran into West at a Sears store where West was working, and they've remained close friends ever since. "They were America's first elite force unit and showed future units like the U.S. Army Special Forces what could be done with a handful of determined, well-trained, well-armed troops against a determined enemy," said Robert A. Buerlein, co-author of "Our Kind of War: Illustrated Saga of the U.S. Marine Raiders of World War II.

TUPELO – Charges have been filed against a Lee County man suspected in a Friday afternoon shooting. Kenneth McGhee, 47, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after he allegedly stole a 12-gauge shotgun from his neighbor’s house and used the gun to shoot James Davis McGlaun, 48. McGlaun was taken to North Mississippi Medical Center where Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson said his non-life-threatening injuries were treated. Johnson said more charges are expected against McGhee, who is also known as Peter Rabbit, Tuesday when he is arraigned. The shooting took place around 4 p.m. on County Road 141 northwest of Mt. Vernon Road.