University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
This Week in Southern Miss Baseball
2/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 23, 2009
This Week's Schedule:
Monday 2/16: Team is off/No practice
Tuesday 2/17: UNO at Southern Miss - 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday 2/18: South Alabama at Southern Miss -4:00 p.m.
Thursday 2/19: Practice at Pete Taylor Park
Friday 2/20: Louisiana Lafayette at Southern Miss -6:30 p.m.
Saturday 2/21: Louisiana Lafayette at Southern Miss- 2:00 p.m.
Sunday 2/22: Louisiana Lafayette at Southern Miss- 1:00 p.m.
*All practice dates and times are tentative and subject to change without prior notice
Last Week in Review:
Southern Miss opened the season with a three game sweep over Lehigh University (18-1, 13-0 and 12-2) at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg. The Golden Eagles recorded 45 hits including five doubles, three triples and three home runs over the three game weekend.
The Golden Eagle pitching staff was just as dominate allowing only one earned run over the three game stretch. The staff recorded 23.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to start the season while walking only seven and striking out 19.
The Southern Miss bullpen worked eight innings of scoreless baseball while allowing only two hits and striking out nine.
TWIB Notes:
· Junior JR Ballinger will make his first career start Tuesday vs. UNO after working 54.2 innings out of the bullpen over his freshman and sophomore seasons
· Bo Davis recorded a triple in each of the first two games, tying the school's career triple record of 13
· Southern Miss enters the season ranked No. 33 in the preseason poll by the Collegiate Baseball Magazine
- Brian Dozier will start his 100th consecutive game at shortstop Tuesday vs. UNO, a streak that dates back to April 6, 2007 vs. UCF
- Dozier needs one more single to for his 200th career single, he would become only the fifth player in school history to have 200 singles.
- Second baseman James Ewing underwent l surgery on his right knee Monday morning to repair partially torn meniscus, he will be out of the lineup for the next 10 days to a week.
- Junior transfer catcher Travis Graves has thrown out all three runners who have tried to steal second base in the only two games he has caught
- Southern Miss faced UNO four times last season including defeating the Privateers twice in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
- Southern Miss scored 43 runs in the opening three game series, last season they did not score 43 runs until 12 games into the season
The Week's Opponents:
Southern Miss will finish off the current eight game homestand with five games against teams from the Sun Belt Conference. UNO and South Alabama visit for mid week contest and the Golden Eagles will host Louisiana Lafayette for three games this weekend.
UNO visits "The Pete" with a 3-1 record after four close contests with Towson University this past weekend. The Golden Eagles matched up with the Privateers four times last season including defeating them twice in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. UNO starting pitcher Jim McGonigle made one start last season vs. Southern Miss on March 12 in which the Golden Eagles scored four runs in 1.2 innings to start the game.
South Alabama (2-2) rides a wave of momentum into "The Pete" after a 10th inning walk off win over No. 6 Ole Miss in the Annual Coca-Cola Classic at Stanky Field. With that victory South Alabama head coach Steve Kittrell won his 1,000 career game for the Jags. The Jags also defeated Mercer College and lost two contests to Liberty.
The Cajuns went 1-2-1 against Nebraska to open the season. After one weekend, junior college transfer Chad Keefer leads the team with a .471 batting average. He started all four games in the infield, tallying eight hits including one double and three RBIS in 17 at bats
Record Watch:
- Brian Dozier needs only 52 hits to break Trey Sutton's school career hit record of 312
- Dozier needs only 25 singles to break the school's single record of 224 held currently by Trey Sutton
- With 39 hits Dozier will join Sutton as the only Golden Eagle players in school history to accumulate 300 career hits
- Bo Davis recorded two triples this past weekend to tie the school's career triple record of 13 set by Chad Herbert from 1989-92
Preseason Awards and Honors:
Brooks Wallace Award Watch List
(National Player of the Year)
All-Conference USA
(Selected by C-USA Coaches)
Baseball America All-Conference Team
SEBaseball.com All-Conference First Team
SEBaseball.com All-Conference Second Team
Rivals.com All-Conference Team
Brain Dozier
Following the Golden Eagles:
WXHB The Hub, 96.5 will once again serve as the flagship radio station for Golden Eagles baseball in 2008. John Cox is in his 27th year calling Golden Eagles baseball. He will be joined in the booth this season by Jack Duggan and Jason Baker.
Southernmiss.com will once again stream live stats of all 52 games on a real time basis and live video will be available for all home games and selected road games through Southern Miss All-Access
This Week at "The Pete":
Any fan with a baseball ticket for Tuesday's game vs.UNO has the opportunity to receive a half price ticket to the men's basketball game vs. Tulane with their ticket stub, tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m.
Go Gold Day for Wednesday's game against South Alabama. Anyone wearing gold to the game receives a $2 discount off of a regular priced ticket.
Any fan with a baseball ticket to Saturday's game vs. Louisiana Lafayette has the opportunity to receive a half price ticket to the women's basketball game vs. Memphis with their ticket stub, tipoff is set for 5:00 p.m.
Tickets:
Individual game tickets can be purchased through the Pat Ferlise Athletic Ticket Office on West 4th St., from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday, over the phone at 1-800-844-TICK (8425) or online at SouthernMiss.com. The Pete Taylor Park ticket office will open approximately two hours prior to first pitch.
Also, season tickets packages are still available in the reserved bleacher and general admission sections but the reserved chair back seats have already been sold out.
Discounted group tickets are also available for groups of 15 or more. For more information on bringing your group to "The Pete" contact Brain Morrison at 601.266.6866
Conference USA Tournament:
The 2009 Conference USA Tournament will be held this season at Pete Taylor Park from May 20-24. Tournament Ticket books are now on sale at the Southern Miss ticket office.
