HATTIESBURG, Miss. — No miracle comeback for LSU this time.

And the Tigers can’t say head coach Jay Johnson didn’t warn them this might happen.

Even after Saturday’s dramatic ninth-inning rally against Southern Miss that put the Tigers in the cat bird’s seat of the Hattiesburg regional, he cautioned that the Eagles looked like a team that could overcome the loser’s bracket and turn the tables.

Southern Miss did just that Sunday night with an 8-4 victory with no hint of anything like the two comeback stunts the Tigers pulled off in opening the regional with a pair of victories.

So the two teams will be back at it today at 3 p.m. for a third time — winner take all — for the regional championship.

Johnson didn’t see Sunday as a missed chance.

“The opportunity is to win three games before we lose two,” Johnson said. “That’s still in front of us. There’s nothing we can do about tonight … I think we’ll be ready to play tomorrow.”

“We didn’t get it done this time,” said LSU’s Cade Doughty, whose 2-run homer in the first inning gave LSU an early lead. “But we’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Maybe Johnson saw Southern Miss’ victory coming. But it’s doubtful he could have picked the culprit — left-hander Justin Storm — out of a police lineup before the USM sophomore came out of nowhere to shut down the Tigers over the final five innings.

Scouting report?

None, really. Storm had only pitched 9.2 innings all season before USM coach Scott Berry made the call to the bullpen for the unknown left-hander after LSU’s Josh Pearson was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth inning of a 4-4 game.

LSU did not score again — not even in the eighth or ninth where the Tigers had had such dramatic fun the last two nights.

“We swung at too many balls,” Johnson summed up, adding that the postseason is historically full of previously known players using the big state for success stories.

“Somebody has to step up when you fall into the loser’s bracket and he certainly did. Good for him but we’ll just get ready for tomorrow.”

Storm held the Tigers to just two of their eight hits over those final five innings, striking out seven and walking only one.

“Really tired,” Storm said after by far his longest career outing. “This is big boy baseball and that is a good club over there. But I think we’ve got a good club in our dugout too.”

The Tigers, whose other two runs came in the third inning on Doughty’s RBI single and Josh Pearson scoring on a passed ball, never really threatened again.

 “Tonight’s game has nothing to do with tomorrow,” Johnson said. “We’ve answered the bell after failure before and done it very well. It’s not something that’s uncommon. I just want them to be themselves and I want them to play in character.”

Both teams may have to patch together enough pitching to get through the final game, although the Eagles’ staff overall came into the regional with the nation’s second best team ERA.

“I think we’ve had a lot games where we’ve had to do things outside the box,” Johnson said. “And we’ve been successful. So I probably feel about as good as any coach can having to do it a little different.”

LSU did spend most of the regular season piecing together its pitching for Sunday games in the SEC.

“Our approach will be to get 27 outs as fast as we can with as few guys from Southern Miss scoring as possible,” Johnson said. “I don’t really have an answer to what that will look like just yet, but I will by the time the bell rings.”

It was Southern Miss’ second game of the day as the Eagles needed a 7-6 walk-off victory over Kennesaw State to get another shot at the Tigers.

A 4-4 game came apart for the Tigers in a sloppy sixth when USM needed only two soft singles to score three runs and take a 7-4 lead.

There were two walks in the mix to load the bases and the Eagles scored on a wild pitch, a single and a balk by Reyzelman.

Carson Paetow added a towering solo home run in eighth for the Eagles.