University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Hosts Eastern Illinois For Three-Game Weekend Series
3/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Hosts Eastern Illinois For Three-Game Weekend Series HATTIESBURG, Miss. ?
This marks the sixth meeting between the two schools with Southern Miss holding a 3-2 lead. The Golden Eagles won 2-of-3 against the Panthers when they visited Hattiesburg in 2002. Southern Miss won the first game, 3-0, dropped the second, 11-6, and won the final game of the series, 4-2.
Eastern Illinois opened its season at the Louisiana-Monroe Tournament, winning against Southwest Missouri State, 6-4, in 12 innings, before dropping games to Louisiana-Monroe, 15-4 and 12-3 to Kansas State. Last weekend, Ole Miss swept a three-game series over the Panthers, 16-5 on Friday, 3-1 on Saturday and 18-10 in the final matchup.
Southern Miss enters the weekend series after dropping a 9-3 decision at Alabama on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles opened its season with a three-game sweep ove r Northwestern (La.) State, before dropping a single home contest to South Alabama. Southern Miss then ran off eight-straight games, sweeping Louisiana Tech in Ruston, two from Louisiana-Monroe at home and then a weekend sweep and tournament championship at the Cox Communications/Lake Area Classic hosted by McNeese State.
The Golden Eagles are hitting .326 as a team with 26 doubles, five triples, 17 home runs and 108 RBIs. Southern Miss has a team ERA of 3.62, has struck out 93, while walking 46. The Panthers are hitting .275 as a team with seven doubles, four home runs and 26 RBIs. EIU has a team ERA of 9.68 with 33 strikeouts and 30 walks. Opponents are hitting .353 against them.
Friday?s pitching matchup will feature Southern Miss senior righthander Anthony DeWitt against Eastern Illinois' junior righthander Kyle Widegren.
DeWitt comes in with a 2-0 record with a 2.37 ERA in three starts. He has pitched 19 innings, gave up five earned runs and 16 hits. He has struck out 16 and walked six with opponents hitting .239 against him. In his last outing last Friday night against Indiana State, DeWitt picked up his second win of the season. He pitched six innings, gave up one run on four hits, walked two and struck out a career-high 10 batters, leading the Golden Eagles to a 3-1 victory.
Widegren comes in with an 0-1 record with a 12.96 ERA. He has pitched 8.1 innings, gave up 12 earned runs on 12 hits. He has struck out eight and walked five with opponents hitting .343 against him. In his last outing against Ole Miss last Friday, he pitched 3.1 innings, gave up 10 runs on seven hits, walked four and struck out four in EIU's 16-5 loss.
Saturday?s game will feature Golden Eagle junior righthander Cliff Russum against Panther sophomore lefthander Kirk Miller.
Russum enters with a record of 3-0 with a 0.95 ERA. In three starts, Russum has struck out 16 and walked five in 19 innings of work and opponents are hitting .172 against him. In his last outing against Oklahoma State last Saturday, he gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits in five innings, walked one and struck out two in Southern Miss' 21-5 victory.
Miller comes in with a record of 0-1 and an ERA of 4.15. In 13 innings of work, he has struck out eight and walked six. Opponents are hitting .217 against him. In his last outing against Ole Miss last Saturday, he pitched a complete game, gave up three runs on eight hits, walked three and struck out five in EIU's 3-1 loss.
Sunday?s game will pit Southern Miss freshman righthander Patrick Ezell against junior righthander Anthony Billups.
Ezell comes in with a record of 0-0 and has an ERA of 5.06. He has made one start and two relief appearances for a total of 10.2 innings pitched. He has struck out eight and walked one with opponents hitting .302 against him. In his last outing against McNeese State last Sunday, he pitched 5.1 innings, gave up four runs, three earned, on seven hits, walked one and struck out four.
Billups enters with a record of 0-0 and an ERA of 22.50 in two innings pitched. He has given up five earned runs on three hits. He has struck out two and walked two with opponents hitting .375 against him.
Southern Miss is led offensively by junior shortstop Matt Shepherd, who sports a .519 batting average. He has five doubles, three triples and eight RBIs. He also has nine walks and a slugging percentage of .722. Junior second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir is second on the team with a batting average of .481 with five doubles, two home runs and a team-high 21 RBI?s. Senior rightfielder Ryan Frith has a .426 batting average with four doubles, a team-high six homers and 16 RBIs.
Eastern Illinois is led offensively by freshman third baseman Ryan Cambell, who sports a .480 batting average. He has four doubles and two RBI?s. Sophomore leftfielder Pete Stone is batting .353 with one double, one home run and four RBI?s. Senior rightfielder Jeff Cammonn is batting .304 with one home run and seven RBI?s.
After the three-game series with Eastern Illinois, the Golden Eagles host Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, March 16, at 6:30 p.m. Southern Miss continues the homestand and opens its defense of the Conference USA title with a three-game weekend series against Houston. Friday's game begins at 6:30 p.m., Saturday's game starts at 3 p.m., and the series will conclude on Sunday at 1 p.m.
