University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
This Week in Southern Miss Baseball
2/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 22, 2010
This Week's Schedule
Monday 2/22: No Practice/Day Off
Tuesday 2/23: Practice at Pete Taylor Park
Wednesday 2/24: Mississippi Valley State at Southern Miss - 4:00 p.m.
Thursday 2/25: Practice at Pete Taylor Park
Friday 2/26: LeMoyneCollegeat Southern Miss- 6:30 p.m.
Saturday 2/27: LeMoyne College at Southern Miss - 3:00 p.m.
Sunday 2/28: LeMoyne College at Southern Miss - 11:00 a.m.
*All practice dates and times are tentative and subject to change without prior notice
TWIB Notes
· Southern Miss opened the season 2-0 for the seventh consecutive year with a 11-0 win Friday and a 7-3 win on Saturday before dropping Sunday's game 7-5 to Northwestern Louisiana
· Todd McInnis and Seth Hester combined for a two-hit shutout, allowing only two hits in the season opener Friday.
· For his performance McInnis earned C-USA Pitcher of the Week Honors for the second time in his career
· The Golden Eagles have scored 23 runs on 38 hits, 11 for extra bases, in the first three games
· The pitching staff recorded 20 strikeouts on the weekend and held opponents to a .188 average and a .250 slugging percentage
· Four different Golden Eagles garnered pre-season All- American honors by various publications. Todd McInnis (NCBWA), Collin Cargill (NCBWA), BA Vollmuth (Baseball America) and Kameron Brunty (Ping Baseball)
· The C-USA coaches and Baseball America both selected Todd McInnis as the preseason C-USA Pitcher of the year
· Closer Collin Cargill was selected to the C-USA and the Baseball America preseason All-C-USA team. He was also named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award watch list for the second consecutive season. (He was placed on the watch list midseason in 2009)
· Baseball America also selected Kameron Brunty and Taylor Walker to their preseason all-conference team
- SE Baseball recognized Joey Archer, McInnis, Cargill and Brunty on their annual preseason all-conference teams
The Week's Opponents
Valley opened the 2010 season by hosting Notre Dame in a three game series. The Irish swept the series 12-4, 8-3 and 19-3.
The Delta Devils finished the 2009 season with a 20-30 overall record and a 15-5 mark in conference play. The Devils struggled in non-conference action, but were able to find good times when the games counted the most. Although MVSU struggled with losing streaks of nine and eight games, a crucial seven game win streak gave them some much-needed mid-season momentum that propelled them toward a divisional crown. Their success late in the season earned them the title of SWAC Eastern Division Winner and the East's number one seed in the SWAC Baseball Tournament. However during the five-day tournament, the team could not find success in Baton Rouge and were eliminated by Texas Southern and Alcorn State.
Southern Miss is 22-0 all-time vs. Mississippi Valley.
Ranked by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as the second-best Independent program in the country in the preseason, the Dolphins come to Hattiesburg this weekend for a three game series from Syracuse, NY.
Head coach Steve Owens enters his 12th season at the Le Moyne with a 314-190 (.623) record and currently ranks 13th nationally in active win percentage. Former Le Moyne stand-out and 10-year MLB veteran Scott Cassidy is the Dolphins' Pitching Coach.
Offensively, the Dolphins are led by senior outfielder Chris Edmondson, who is poised to break a number of career records in his final season. Edmondson, who earned All-America honors in 2008, currently stands four home runs and 26 RBI's shy of Chuck Kulle's career marks. Sophomore Brett Botsford led the team with a .363 batting average that ranks third in the record book all-time for batting by a freshman.
On the mound, junior Jeff Tardiff leads the rotation following a 6-2 campaign in 2009. Tardiff led the team with a 3.02 ERA in 95.1 innings of work and won his final five decisions.
LeMoyne (2-2) played in the 2010 USA Baseball Complex Classic to open the season and split games with both Illinios-Chicago and Wright State.
Southern Miss and LeMoyne have never met on the diamond.
In The Polls
Southern Miss held their No. 21 ranking in the Baseball America Poll for the second consecutive week. In both the Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA Polls the Golden Eagles slipped to No. 26 this week.
The USA Today/Coaches Poll is released on Tuesday.
Awards and Honors
C-USA Pitcher of the Week
Todd McInnis (2/22)
PRESEASON
Conference USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year
C-USA Coaches and Baseball America
NCBWA Preseason All-American
Baseball America Preseason All-American
BA Vollmuth
Ping! Baseball Preseason All-American
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
Around C-USA
EAST CAROLINA
The Pirates hosted No. 2 Virginia on opening weekend, dropping two-of-three. Junior SS
Dustin Harrington batted .385 (5-for-13) in the opening series. He drove in four runs,
scored four, roped on double and extended his current hitting streak to 11 games with a
home run in his first at-bat of game three. He recorded two multi-hit games and now has
50 for his career. Junior IF Cam Freeman and junior OF Austin Homan started all three
games and currently lead the team with a .400 batting average. Freeman collected a hit in
all three contests, including a two-hit performance in game two's victory. Homan recorded a pair of multi-hit games (six for career) and drove in two runs. Junior RHP Seth Maness suffered his first regular season loss since his All-America freshman campaign in 2008. Maness allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk in 5.2 innings. He retired nine of his first 10 batters faced and 11 of his first 15 hitters. During the opening series, the Pirates ushered in 14,922 fans (4,974 avg.) which included the largest opening day crowd at Clark-LeClair Stadium (5,012). Saturday's attendance was announced as 5,136 marking the first time in school history the Pirates had back-to-back crowds of 5,000-plus.
HOUSTON
The Cougars dropped all three games against Texas State this past weekend. Houston narrowly missed avoiding the sweep on Sunday, scoring five times in the final two innings and sending the potential game-winning run to the plate with two out in the ninth before falling, 9-7. Sophomore OF/P Matt Creel had a strong game in the series finale, going 3- for-4 with a double and an RBI at the plate, while also throwing 1.1 scoreless innings of relief with one walk and one strikeout. Junior SS Blake Kelso hit safely in all three
games, collecting five hits including a double. Sophomore 3B Austin Gracey notched a pair of hits in each of his first two games in a Cougar uniform.
MARSHALL
The Thundering Herd split a four-game series at Samford over the weekend. Junior 1B/C Victor Gomez collected two hits in three of the four games, including a 2-for-4 performance with a double, homer and four RBI in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. He registered a .647 slugging percentage and 11 total bases for the weekend. Freshman OF Isaac Ballou singled, doubled, tripled and drove in two runs in Sunday's 10-6 win. Ballou, who entered the game with just one hit in the series, contributed a break-out contest, going 3-for-6 and a trio of RBI. Junior RHP Mike Cavalli made his first collegiate appearance for the Herd on Sunday, working 4.0 innings out of the bullpen, allowing just one earned run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts for the win. Junior SS Kenny Socorro had five hits for the weekend, including three doubles. Freshman Nathan Gomez and sophomore Alfredo Brito split time at first base in the series, going a combined 6-for-11 with three doubles and four RBI.
MEMPHIS
The Tigers split a pair of games with Middle Tennessee in the opening series at FedExPark. Middle Tennessee rallied to score four runs in the final two innings to spoil the program's first-ever game at FedExPark, taking a 4-3 decision on Friday evening. Senior OF Tyler Huelsing recorded the Tigers' first hit at FedExPark with a single up the middle in the second inning of Friday's season-opener. He later scored the park's first run on an RBI-single by sophomore SS Chad Zurcher. Huelsing had a strong weekend, hitting .500 with three doubles, three runs and two RBI. Huelsing went 3-for-4 with two
doubles in the opener and then hit safely in his first at-bat of the game two. The Memphis offense got the season started strong, hitting .356 this weekend. Senior 1B Trey Wiedman's game-winning single capped the 17-hit offensive barrage as Memphis edged Middle Tennessee, 7-6, in the club's first win at the newly redesigned FedExPark, Saturday afternoon. Sophomore IF Jacob Wilson posted three RBI and scored twice on Saturday, driving in runs in the second, fourth and sixth innings. He hit the first home run in FedExPark history when he sent a blast deep over the centerfield wall.
RICE
Rice went on the road to Stanford and dropped all three games, including one by a single run and the season-opener by two runs. The Owls had leads in all three games, including the bottom of the ninth inning in the series finale. Rice had a wealth of offensive opportunities throughout the games, including the very start of innings where the Blue & Gray placed the leadoff batter on base in 11 of the weekend's 27 innings (40.7 pct.). The team also clubbed four home runs over the weekend. It was the first time since 2005
where Rice had been swept in a three-game series. That was also close to the Bay Area of California (vs. San Jose State). That 2005 Owl squad went on to win a conference championship and advance to an NCAA Super Regional. It was the first time for Rice to drop its first three games of the season since the year 2000. That 2000 Owl team bounced back to win a conference championship and advance to an NCAA Regional played in the city of Houston. Sophomore 3B Anthony Rendon went 3-for-8 (.375) with a home run
and a double. The Owl slugger was walked five times and hit by a pitch once for a .643 on-base percentage. Sophomore OF Michael Fuda also had a great opening weekend, going 5-for-10 with a homer and a triple for a 1.000 slugging percentage. Fuda was also walked three times, hit by a pitch once (.667 OB%) and drove in four RBI.
TULANE
The Green Wave dropped the first two games against Boston College before posting a 14- 6 victory in Sunday's series finale. Freshman Blake Crohan started all three games, hitting .462 (6-of-13) with a .538 slugging percentage. He showed versatility defensively, starting on Friday in the outfield, behind the plate on Saturday and playing both spots on Sunday. Crohan had at least one hit in all three games, including a 4-for-5 performance in the finale when he had a double and an RBI. He also posted a .500 on-base percentage with a walk and scored four runs, including a career-best three on Sunday. The Green Wave offense exploded for seven first-inning runs in that game - including a grand slam off the bat of sophomore 1B Jeremy Schaffer. Tulane had 19 hits on the day, including five for extra bases. Sophomore RHP Robby Broach made a successful return to the mound on Sunday after missing all of last season with an arm injury. Making his first start since May 4, 2008, Broach scattered four runs on six hits while walking one and striking out five in 5.0 innings, picking up the win. Freshman 2B Brennan Middleton hit safely in
his first three collegiate games, going 5-for-10 (.500) with a double and three runs scored.
UAB
The Blazers will be the final Conference USA team to open their season when they travel to Mississippi State on Tuesday. UAB returns its entire infield, including junior 2B Nick Crawford, who was named to the All-Cape Team over the summer for the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod League. Crawford, a career .308 hitter with a career .987 fielding percentage, is entering his third year as the Blazers' starting second baseman. He joins four-year starting shortstop Jonathan Merritt on the middle infield. Merritt ranks in the top 10 in the UAB career record book for runs scored (147, 5th), doubles (39, 5th), stolen bases (48, 6th) and hits (206, 7th). First baseman Luke Stewart and third baseman Andrew Manning also return. Senior C/DH Digger Towe is coming off an impressive 2009 season in his first year as a Blazer. Towe led UAB with a .353 batting average and 61 RBI while also belting nine home runs. He was a second-team all-conference selection, a two-time league hitter of the week and was once named the Pro-Line Athletic
National Hitter of the Week. Towe joins Luke Stewart as the top returning power hitters in the lineup. Stewart led the Blazers with 15 home runs in 2009 to go along with 49 RBI. Between them, the pair accounted for 24 home runs and 110 RBI. UAB also returns three pitchers with experience in the weekend rotation in RHP Beau Pender, LHP Shay Crawford and RHP Mitch Kloskowski. The Blazers add to that mix RHP Ryan Woolley, a Georgia transfer who sat out last season because of NCAA transfer rules. Woolley was a sixth-round draft choice of the Atlanta Braves this past summer but opted to return to
UAB.
UCF
The Knights opened the season with a three-game sweep of Savannah State, batting .390 as a team with 15 extra-base hits. UCF recorded five stolen bases in the weekend series, good for 21 percent of the team's total output from 2009 when the Knights had 24 steals all season. Last year it took the Black and Gold 14 games before posting five stolen bases as a team. In UCF's 14-4 win over SSU Feb. 20, senior OF Chris Duffy became the first Knight since 2002 to record at least seven RBI in a game. He fell one RBI, one HR and one total base shy of tying the UCF single-game record in each category. Duffy finished the day by going 4-for-5 with seven RBI, two homers, two runs and 12 total bases. All three starting pitchers for the Knights in the series were junior college transfers. Two of them were lefties, marking the first time since 2008 that a southpaw started on the mound for UCF. Junior RHP Owen Dew had the top performance, throwing 5.0 scoreless innings, striking out out six and allowing four hits. The Knights also used three freshmen in the starting lineup for opening day, the most since UCF had four freshmen receive the
opening day start in 2006.
Following the Golden Eagles
WXHB (96.5 FM in Hattiesburg) will once again serve as the flagship station for the Golden Eagle baseball program this spring. Joining the ISP Sports Network this season will be WFFF (96.7 FM and 1360 AM in Columbia).
Both WXHB and WFFF will carry the full schedule this season.
Joining the network for all 24 Conference USA Games and selected mid-week games will be WAOY (91.7 FM in Gulfport), WRBE (106.9 FM and 1440 AM in Lucedale) and WGVM (1260 AM in Greenville).
The selected midweek games include March 23 vs. Ole Miss, April 7 vs. LSU, April 20 at Ole Miss, May 5 vs. Mississippi State and May 18 vs. Mississippi State.
The entire ISP Sports network would also carry any postseason game for the 2010 season including the C-USA Tournament and the NCAA postseason.
In addition, audio will be available for every game and video for all home games at southernmiss.com through the CBS College Sports All-Access subscription service.
Veteran broadcaster John Cox will call his 28th season of Southern Miss baseball in 2010
This Week at "The Pete"
For Wednesday's game the Southern Miss Athletic Department is issuing permission slips for anyone to miss work that afternoon and attend the game. While these slips have no actual credibility with your employer it is a great excuse to leave work and come watch baseball.
On Saturday the first 100 fans through the gate will receive a free Pete Taylor Park mini bat. The gates will open at 1:00 p.m.
This and every Sunday is Kids run the bases. All children are invited onto the field after the game to run the bases at "The Pete" weather permitting.
**All Promotions and dates are subject to change and availability**
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 10 or more. For more information on bringing your group to "The Pete" contact Brain Morrison at 601.266.6866
Game Day Weather Hotline
For the latest information on weather related issues concerning Southern Miss home events call the Southern Miss gameday hotline at 601.266.7411. The number will be updated constantly in situations where weather could affect games.
