University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Travels To Southeastern Louisiana For Midweek Contest
4/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Travels To Southeastern Louisiana For Midweek Contest
Hattiesburg, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team travels to Hammond, La., for a midweek contest against Southeastern Louisiana University at Alumni Stadium (3,000) on Wednesday, Apr. 2, at 6:30 p.m.
The game will be broadcast on Zoo 107.1-FM with Lance Pittman and John Cox handling the play-by-play duties. For those outside of Hattiesburg, the game can be heard by logging onto SouthernMiss.com.
The Golden Eagles (20-8) enter Wednesday's contest after winning 2-of-3 games against Tulane this past weekend. Southern Miss won Friday's game, 8-6, and Saturday's, 5-4, before dropping Sunday's game, 5-4. The Lions (7-16) were swept at home this past weekend by Southwest Texas State, 7-3, on Friday, 7-4 on Saturday and 5-1 in the weekend finale.
This marks the 103rd meeting between the two schools in a series that began in 1948. The Golden Eagles hold a 62-41 series advantage after winning both games last season, 6-4, in Hattiesburg, and 19-5, in Hammond.
Southern Miss will send Cliff Russum (So., RHP) to the mound to face Southeastern Louisiana's Jeremy Mizell (Fr., RHP). Russum is 2-4 with a 4.28 ERA in 33.2 innings pitched. He has struck out a team-high 36 batters, is tied for the team lead in walks with 18 and opponents are only hitting .172 against him. Last week he pitched in two games. Against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday, he picked up his second win of the season, pitching a three-hit complete game shutout, while striking out a career-high 13 batters. He came on in relief on Sunday against Tulane, pitching two-thirds of an inning and recording one strikeout.
Mizell is 1-4 with a 7.42 ERA in 30.1 innings pitched. He has struck out 18, walked nine and opponents are hitting .311 against him. In his last outing, he pitched four innings, while giving up four runs on seven hits and striking out four in Southeastern Louisiana's 8-4 loss to Tulane.
Clint King continues to lead Southern Miss in hitting with a .394 batting average, along with a team-leading 32 runs, 43 hits, nine home runs and 34 RBIs. He has a .452 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .706. He also has stolen 6-of-8 bases and has hit seven doubles. Brad Willcutt is hitting .365 with a team-leading 14 doubles and also has six home runs and has driven in 27 runs. Jarrett Hoffpauir is hitting .339 with five doubles, one triple, three home runs and 18 RBIs. Jeff Cook is hitting .339 with four doubles, two triples and six home runs. He has an on-base percentage of .409 and a slugging percentage of .565.
Ray Antonelli is 0-0 with a 2.83 ERA in 28.2 innings pitched. He has struck out 32 and walked 12, while allowing opposing batters to hit .224 off of him. Austin Tubb is 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA in 15.1 innings pitched with three saves and has struck out 16, while walking five. Anthony Dewitt and Bob McCrory lead the team with five wins each and Stephen Castleman is second in strikeouts with 32.
The Golden Eagles are hitting .318 as a team with 102 extra base hits, including 61 doubles, eight triples and 33 home runs. They have a .401 on-base percentage and a .501 slugging percentage. Southern Miss has stolen 23-of-28 bases this year and has committed 39 errors in 1,093 chances or a .964 fielding percentage. The pitching staff has combined for a 4.08 ERA with 213 strikeouts to 109 walks. Opponents are hitting .268 off of Golden Eagle pitchers.
Southeastern Louisiana enters the midweek game, hitting .268 with 67 extra base hits, 49 doubles, six triples and 12 home runs. The Lions have an on-base percentage of .371 and a slugging percentage of .399. They have stolen 20-of-26 bases and committed 47 errors in 877 chances. The pitching staff has combined for a 7.29 ERA, struck out 118 batters and walked 76. Opponents are hitting .337 against Lion pitchers.
Senior outfielder Robert Larsen leads the Lions with a .369 batting average. He also has four doubles and 11 RBIs. Junior outfielder Jeff Janzen is hitting .337 with a team-leading 14 doubles, two triples, two homers and 19 RBIs. Junior infielder Anthony Garibaldi is hitting .333 with five doubles, one triple, five home runs and 16 RBIs.
Southern Miss travels to Cincinnati for a three-game Conference USA weekend series, Apr. 4-6. Friday's game begins at 2 p.m., Saturday's at Noon and Sunday's at 11:30 p.m. All times are central.
