University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Finishes Opening Week of Fall Practice
10/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 2, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team began its second week of fall practice Monday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field and Head Coach Corky Palmer expressed his satisfaction with the progress his team has shown thus far during the early going.
"We had a good first week of work and the players were enthusiastic," the 11th-year coach said of the team's opening six-days of practice.
The Golden Eagles put in some defensive packages and played a pair of intra-squad contests during the opening week. Palmer said he was pleased with the development of the team's position players, including the maturation process of the younger players, and feels strongly that Southern Miss will field a good lineup this spring.
Palmer admitted that the offense was ahead of the pitchers at this point in the fall and stated the starting job for the catcher's spot was still open for competition. Palmer went on to praise some of his players that had enjoyed excellent first-week workouts.
Some of the players that he singled out included redshirt junior outfielder Drew Carson (Monroe, La.), who played part-time last year, redshirt senior catcher Eddie Burger (Long Beach, Miss.), who has not played much over the last two years because of injuries, as well as University of Arkansas transfer, sophomore third baseman James Ewing (Beaumont, Texas), the brother of teammate Michael Ewing.
"James Ewing is going to mean a lot to our team as he is a tremendous hitter and playing well at third base," Palmer said. "It was a piece of the puzzle that we were a little worried about with Marc (Maddox) leaving, but it looks like he is going to be alright. He is not going to hit with the power that Marc did, but Ewing is a tremendous hitter who uses the whole field well."
As for pitching, Palmer praised the performance of senior righthander Ryan Belanger (Houma, La.) as he threw twice in intra-squad action last week.
"Ryan threw the ball well and he has learned how to locate better with a year in the program has helped with," Palmer said. "Right now, he is throwing as well as anyone on our staff."
The only Golden Eagle who has been hampered by injury in the early going has been redshirt junior righthander Mike Cashion (Clinton, Miss.). Cashion has been nursing a sore shoulder and has not worked out of the bullpen for the last two weeks. Cashion, who had surgery last year, is doing well with the elbow that was repaired but the coaching staff is using caution in his return because of the soreness that has developed in his shoulder.
"We would like to see him back out there as he is the one pitcher before he got hurt which had a lot of success at the Division I level," Palmer said.
The Golden Eagles end fall workouts with the annual Black-Gold game slated for Sunday, Oct. 22. Game time is set for 1:30 p.m.
