University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Belanger Earns Second Conference USA Pitcher of the Week Accolade
5/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss senior right-hand pitcher Ryan Belanger was named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week as announced by the conference office today.
This marks the fifth time a Southern Miss pitcher has been honored this season and the first time that five C-USA Pitcher of the Week honors were given to Golden Eagles pitchers in the same season. The Southern Miss pitching staff earned four pitcher of the week honors in 1996, marking the previous high.
Belanger pitched the first complete-game of his two-year Southern Miss career and limited Houston to four hits, one walk and struck out eight batters to lead Southern Miss to a 6-0 victory over the Cougars in game one of the series at Cougar Field on Thursday night.
Belanger finished with 120 pitches, gave up one walk in the first inning, two hits in the third inning, one in the fourth inning and one in the eighth inning. Only one runner advanced to second base in the game and he retired the side in six of the nine innings. His eight strikeouts matched his season high that he collected against Kent State on March 16. This is the second time this season that Belanger has been named C-USA Pitcher of the Week.
Belanger received the honor on Feb. 25 for his performance against Georgia Southern in the Wiregrass Classic on Feb. 23, David Clark was selected for the honor for his complete-game shutout against Louisiana-Lafayette, Todd McInnis was selected for the honor for his one-hit performance against Alabama on March 6 and Barry Bowden was selected for his performance at East Carolina on April 28.
Southern Miss (37-19, 14-10 C-USA) travels to Greenville, N.C., to participate in the 2007 Conference USA Baseball Tournament. The No. 3 seeded Golden Eagles face No. 6-seed UAB in game three on Wednesday at 3 p.m., CT.
No. 4 Houston and No. 5 Memphis play in game one on Wednesday at 8 a.m., CT, No. 1 Rice and No. 8 UCF play at 12:30 p.m., and No. 2 East Carolina and No. 7 Tulane play the final game at 6:30 p.m.
