University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Opens Season With Marshall For Three-Game Series
2/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Opens Season With Marshall For Three-Game Series
HATTIESBURG, Miss. ?
Because of conflicts with the women's basketball games, Friday and Sunday's games will be broadcast on WMXI - 98.1 FM. Saturday's game will be carried on the flagship station for Golden Eagle baseball, 107.1 FM, WKNZ. All three games will be aired on the internet by logging on to www.SouthernMiss.com, then going to the audio/video link on the left side, then go to the baseball schedule from there.
This is the first meeting between the two schools and only the sixth meeting between Southern Miss and a member which hails from the Mid-American Conference. The Herd will be a member of Conference USA in all sports beginning the 2005-06 academic year.
Southern Miss opens its season with a new look this year, having only four returning position starters and two returning starting pitchers. Leading the Golden Eagles into the new year will be seniors Beau Griffin (3B, .297, 11 2B, 3 HR, 29 RBIs), Jason Lowery (CF, .298, 13 2b, 10 HR, 51 RBIs), Brad Willcutt (C, .291, 14 2b, 9 HR, 40 RBIs, 41 BB) and John Nicholas (RHP, 1-1, 4.25 ERA, 20K), junior Marc Maddox (1B, .317, 11 2B, 16 HR, 60 RBIs) and sophomores Mike Cashion (RHP, 3-4, 4.37, 46K) and Patrick Ezell (RHP, 6-2, 3.57 ERA, 73K).
Marshall (0-3) enters this weekend's series after dropping a three-game series at Mercer last weekend, 3-2, 2-0 and 8-0. Junior infielder Aaron Jamieson leads the Herd with a .400 batting average, sophomore catcher Nick Wolfe is hitting .333 and Freshman catcher Tommy Johnson is hitting .273 but leads the team in home runs with two. Senior outfielder Chris Monaco leads the team in stolen bases with two.
Ezell will face junior right-hander Chris Cummings in Friday's game. Cummings pitched 4.2 innings at Mercer last week, giving up two runs on two hits, walking four and striking out four. Golden Eagle newcomer junior left-hander Cole Basinger will face junior left-hander Chris Koutsavlis in game two on Saturday. Koutsavlis pitched 7.1 innings at Mercer, giving up two runs on six hits, walked two and struck out two. Cashion will face junior right-hander Brian Knippelmeyer in the series finale on Sunday. Knippelmeyer pitched 2.1 innings at Mercer, giving up four runs on four hits, walking two and striking out five.
Following this weekend's series, Southern Miss will host South Alabama on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at "The Pete" at 3 p.m. Tickets for the Marshall series, as well as the season, are still on sale by calling 1-800-844-TICK, 601-266-4518 or by logging online at SouthernMiss.com.
