University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Hosts Ragin' Cajuns For Three-Game Weekend Series
3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 1, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team comes home this weekend to host Louisiana-Lafayette in a three-game weekend series on Friday-Sunday, March 3-5, at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field. Friday's game starts at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday's and Sunday's games begin at 1 p.m.
All Southern Miss games will be carried on the radio and on-line at www.SouthernMiss.com. All three games will be carried locally on WXHB-96.5 FM. John Cox and Lance Pittman will broadcast the games for the entire weekend. Fans can also follow each game via GameTracker on-line at www.SouthernMiss.com.
This marks the 22nd meeting between the two schools with UL Lafayette holding a 13-8 series advantage. The two schools haven't played since 2001 when Southern Miss swept the Ragin Cajuns at "The Pete", 5-1, 6-4 and 4-2.
Southern Miss (8-1) enters the weekend series after defeating Southeastern Louisiana, 4-2, on Wednesday night in Hammond, La. The Golden Eagles opened the season, winning the Coca-Cola Southern Miss Baseball Classic, defeating Southern Illinois, 9-0, Louisville 6-5 and Northwestern (La.) State, 10-7. After winning two midweek games over South Alabama (6-1) and New Orleans (4-1), Southern Miss defeated Georgia Southern (7-1) and Indiana (15-4) before dropping a 3-2 decision to Troy in the championship game of the Wiregrass Classic on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Louisiana-Lafayette (10-0) enters this weekend with a perfect 10-0 record, 6-0 at home and 4-0 on the road. The Ragin Cajuns defeated Nicholls State, 15-7, to open their season before sweeping Texas-San Antonio in San Antonio, 10-2, 5-2 and 14-2. UL Lafayette won a midweek game at Southeastern Louisiana, 5-1, before sweeping Illinois at home, 13-5, 7-6, 10-7. The Ragin Cajuns defeated Louisiana Tech, 5-1, on Tuesday and Northwestern State, 10-5, on Wednesday.
Southern Miss is hitting .294 with 17 doubles, one triple, two home runs and have stolen 10 bases. UL Lafayette is hitting .339 with 28 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs and have stolen 18-of-22 bases this season.
Junior first baseman Trey Sutton leads the Golden Eagles with a .400 batting average, five doubles, two triples, 10 RBIs and seven walks. Sophomore shortstop Brian Dozier is second on the team, hitting .371 with two doubles, four walks and four RBIs, and sophomore outfielder Luke Adkins is hitting .333 with one double, four walks and five RBIs.
Senior outfielder Jefferies Tatford leads the Ragin Cajuns with a .452 batting average with four doubles, one triple, two home runs, eight walks and six RBIs. Junior outfielder Nolan Gisclair is hitting .395 with two doubles, a home run and a team-leading 15 RBIs, while catcher Jonathan Lucroy is hitting .386 with four doubles, one triple, one home run and 11 RBIs.
The Golden Eagles will send senior right-hander Ryan Belanger to the mound on Friday to face UL Lafayette junior left-hander Hunter Moody.
Belanger is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in 15 innings pitched, has struck out a team-high 14 batters, walked only two and opponents are hitting .151 against him. In his last outing against Georgia Southern last Friday, he pitched eight innings, giving up one run on four hits, walking one and striking out seven batters to earn his second win in as many starts this season.
Moody is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 5.0 innings pitched. He has struck out three, walked two and opponents are hitting 0.71 against him. In his last outing against Illinois on Feb. 23, he pitched 5.0 innings, giving up one hit, two walks and striking out three batters.
On Saturday, Southern Miss' redshirt junior right-hander Barry Bowden will face Ragin' Cajun junior left-hander John Zorich.
Bowden is 1-0 with a 3.75 ERA in 12 innings pitched. He has struck out 13, walked two and opponents are hitting.176 against him. In his last outing against Indiana last Saturday, he pitched six innings, giving up three runs on six hits, walking one and striking out a season-high eight batters.
Zorich is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 15.0 innings pitched. He has struck out nine batters, walked one and opponents are hitting .254 against him. In his last start against Illinois last Saturday, he pitched eight innings in relief, giving up two runs on eight hits and striking out eight batters to earn the win.
In the final game of the series, Golden Eagle redshirt junior David Clark will face UL Lafayette junior right-hander Buddy Glass.
Clark made his second appearance on Feb. 25 against Troy, pitching 6.0 innings, giving up three runs on six hits, walking two and striking out a season-high eight batters.
Glass is 3-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 18.2 innings pitched. He has struck out 12, walked four and opponents are hitting .279 against him. In his last appearance against Louisiana Tech on Tuesday, he pitched 7.2 innings, giving up one unearned run on seven hits, walking two and striking out five.
After this weekend, the Golden Eagles travel to Pearl, Miss., on Tuesday, March 6, to host Alabama at Trustmark Park at 7 p.m. For Ticket Information, contact the Southern Miss Ticket Office at 1-800-844-TICK or at 601-266-5418.
