University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
This Week in Southern Miss Baseball
3/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 15, 2010
This Week in Southern Miss Baseball
March 15, 2010
This Week's Schedule
Monday 3/15: Practice at Pete Taylor Park
Tuesday 3/16: UNO at Southern Miss - 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday 3/: Southern Miss at La. Monroe - 6:30 p.m.
Thursday 3/18: Practice at La. Tech in Ruston La.
Friday 3/19: Southern Miss at La.Tech- 6:30 p.m.
Saturday 3/20: Southern Miss at La. Tech - 3:00 p.m.
Sunday 3/21: Southern Miss at La. Tech - 1:00 p.m.
*All practice dates and times are tentative and subject to change without prior notice
TWIB Notes
· Southern Miss has won six of their last seven games, including a series sweep over Missouri State and a series win at Louisiana-Lafayette
· Scott Copeland threw a complete game, three-hit shutout in game two of the Missouri State series. He struck out eight and walked no one for his third win of the season
· For his efforts he was named C-USA Pitcher of the Week, the first C-USA honor of his career
· Mark Ellis' walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth capped a three-run bottom of the ninth inning for a 4-3 victory in Friday's series opener vs. Missouri State
· The Golden Eagles scored 10 runs in their final two at bats on Sunday in route to a 13-4 win
· Southern Miss has scored 10 runs or more in six of the teams 14 games while have 10 or more hits in 10 games
· The black and gold have already turned 21 double plays through the first 14 games of 2010.
· They led the nation last year with 83 twin-killings.
· The Golden Eagles have scored 119 runs on 162 hits, 46 for extra bases, in the first 14 games
- The pitching staff has recorded 107 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .234 average and a .302 slugging percentage
Last week in review
Southern Miss sweep Missouri State at Pete Taylor Park to win their sixth game in their seven attempts. Over the weekend set Southern Miss
In Friday's game Southern Miss scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to take game one of the series over Missouri State with a 4-3 victory , keyeb by Mark Ellis bases loaded walk off single.
The first seven innings were a pitchers duel with All-American's on the bump for both teams. Missouri State scratched across one run in the second, for the games only run until the eighth inning for either team.
The Bears added single runs in both the eighth and ninth innings while Southern Miss (8-4) scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the eight.
Senior right-hander Scott Copeland pitched the best game of his career with a three-hit, compete game shutout over visiting Missouri State Saturday afternoon in a 6-0 victory.
Copeland (3-0) completely dominated the Missouri State hitters all afternoon, needing only 98 pitches and an hour and 54 minutes for the complete game shutout. He retired the final 11 hitters and 16 of the last 17 hitters to complete his masterful performance.
On the afternoon Copeland rolled 15 ground ball outs, including a double play, while facing only two hitters over the minimum and striking out eight without walking anyone.
He allowed only three hits in the game, all ground balls that made it through the infield, and only one runner reached as far as second base.
On Sunday, Southern Miss scored 10 runs in their final two at bats, propelling the team to a 13-4 victory Sunday afternoon and a series sweep over Missouri State.
Over the weekend the Golden Eagles hit .326 (31-95) with 23 runs scored. The team tallied eight extra base hits for a .463 slugging while drawing 12 walks and getting hit by three pitches while staling five bases.
On the mound Southern Miss posted a 2.33 ERA, allowing only seven runs on 27 innings while fanning 25 hitters and walking only eight.
The midweek game vs. Troy was rained out and will not be made up at this time.
The Week's Opponents
This week is the only week of the season that Southern Miss will play five scheduled games in a week, which was the norm the past two seasons in collegiate baseball.
UNO will visit "The Pete" for the final time on Tuesday. The Privateers will make the move to Division III next season and will no longer be opponents with the Golden Eagles. The two teams have been regular opponents since 1970, meeting 91 times.
UNO has struggled out of the gate with a 3-9 record thus far this season. They opened Sun Belt Conference play this past weekend with Western Kentucky sweeping the three-game set in New Orleans.
The Golden Eagles will then hit the road the next nine games spanning the rest of the month. They will travel to La. Monroe on Wednesday. The two teams met at Pete Taylor Park on March 3rd with Southern Miss winning a decisive 14-5 game.
Over the weekend Southern Miss will travel to La. Tech for a three game set. The two teams played a three game set last season at "The Pete" with Southern Miss taking two-of-three for the Bulldogs. La. Tech is currently 8-8 and lost six consecutive games, including their opening first four WAC games over the weekend to New Mexico.
In The Polls
After spending the first to weeks of the season in the top 25 Southern Miss fell from the polls in week three. The Golden Eagles have been ranked as high as No. 21 this season.
Southern Miss has been listed in the "Others Receiving Votes" category the last three weeks in the NCBWA Poll
RPI Watch
According to Boydsworld.com Southern Miss is currently No. 41 in the latest RPI. Here is a look at where some of the Golden Eagles opponents that are in the top 100 and the Golden Eagles record against them
10- LSU
13- Ole Miss
23- La. Lafayette (2-1)
24- Mississippi State
31- Northwestern State (2-1)
32- Rice
44- East Carolina
53- Houston
64- Marshall
65- La. Monroe (1-0)
79- South Alabama
Around Conference USA
EAST CAROLINA
The Pirates finished 1-3 on their road trip to California, ending the trip with a 3-2 win at Pepperdine on Saturday. Junior SS Dustin Harrington extended his current hit streak to 22 games last week. He batted a team-best .438 (7-for-16) with three runs scored, collecting a pair of multiple-hit games. Senior DH Kyle Roller batted .333 (5-for-15) on the trip with a double, a home run, four RBI and two runs scored. He had two hits and two RBI in each of the last two games against Pepperdine to push his career totals to 55 multi hit and 47 multi-RBI games. Sophomore 3B Corey Thompson continued his hot hitting by batting .357 (5-for-14) with two doubles and an RBI on the Pirates four-game west coast trip. Junior RHP Sthil Sowers has not allowed an earned run in 6.2 innings (three appearances) this season and boasts a 0.00 ERA. He tossed three scoreless innings of relief against Cal State Northridge giving up two hits and striking out three. Junior RHP Seth Simmons closed out his fourth game of the season, picking up the save in the Pirates lone win on the west coast. He worked two scoreless innings of relief giving up a pair of hits and fanning three. Simmons now has 15 career saves which ties him for third place on the school's all-time saves list with Shane Mathews (2004-07).
HOUSTON
The Cougars became the first Conference USA team to sweep a series in California in more than five years when they won three games at Cal Poly over the weekend. The victories increased Houston's winning streak to six games. Junior SS Blake Kelso had five hits, five RBI and five runs scored in the series at Cal Poly, producing at least one of each in all three games. He also had a triple, a home run, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly. Freshman RHP Eric Brooks earned his first collegiate win on Sunday, allowing two earned runs on five hits over 6.1 innings pitched. He struck out three without walking a batter. In Saturday's win, sophomore RHP Mo Wiley picked up his first win of the season, striking out 10 batters in 4.2 innings pitched. Freshman DH M.P. Cokinos homered in back-to-back games and finished the weekend 5-for-10 (.500) with six RBI. Sophomore RHP Michael Goodnight followed up his National Pitcher of the Week performance against Texas by earning the win on Sunday for Houston, going six innings while allowing five hits and two runs with six strikeouts. He improved to 3-1 on the year. Sophomore RHP Matt Creel struck out the side in the ninth inning of Sunday's 5-3 win to pick up his third save of the season.
MARSHALL
The Thundering Herd were 2-1 at the Arby's Classic in Knoxville, Tenn., picking up their first win over a ranked opponent this season with a 17-1 thumping of No. 17 Ohio State on Saturday. It marked the second straight season that Marshall has defeated a nationally ranked Ohio State team. Junior C Victor Gomez went 8-for-14 (.571), launched two homers, scored seven times, collected 11 RBI, 14 total bases and tallied a 1.000 slugging percentage in the three games. V. Gomez, senior 3B Josh Valle, senior OF Kurt Lipton and sophomore 1B Alfredo Brito each had three hits in the win over OSU. Gomez and Brito knocked in three runs and Lipton launched a three-run homer, his third of the season. Valle had four straight multiple hit games before producing one hit on Sunday against Tennessee. The team total of 19 hits were the most since the MU tallied 16 base knocks vs. Southern Miss on May 2, 2008 and the 17 runs are the most in an outing since 15 runs were scored against Youngstown State (3/15/09) last season. Marshall has scored 10 or more runs in four of its seven victories.
MEMPHIS
The Tigers dropped two-of-three at Dallas Baptist over the weekend. Sophomore 2B Chad Zurcher hit safely in all five games last week, going 8-for-20 (.400) with a double, two RBI and four runs scored. He was 4-for-9 in Saturday's doubleheader sweep at DBU. Zurcher leads Conference USA in stolen bases with nine, while sophomore OF Drew Martinez is tied for second with seven. Junior C Phillip Chapman had an RBI double to left field in the ninth inning to score Jacob Wilson and give the Tigers a 9-8 win in game one. Freshman RHP Dan Langfield made two appearances last week, picking up a win and a loss. He allowed just two earned runs and struck out eight with just one walk in 6.2 combined innings pitched. Senior OF Tyler Huelsing is batting .323 while leading Memphis in doubles (7), triples (2), home runs (2) and RBI (19). Junior LHP Ryan Holland is ranked fourth in C-USA in ERA at 1.86.
RICE
The Owls have now won 10 of their last 13 games. At 10-7 overall, Rice is only a game behind the 2007 and 2008 Owl teams that both started 11-6, and both of whom went on to reach the College World Series in Omaha. Rice's bats came alive in Saturday's game against California. The Owls scored 26 runs, tying for the fifth-highest single game total in school history, on a total of 24 hits that is also one of the top marks in the Rice record books. In the 26-11 victory, 2009 C-USA Player of the Year Anthony Rendon hit a grand slam and a three-run homer on the way to an eight-RBI day. It was the highest RBI total in a nine-inning game by an Owl dating back to 2002. In five total games last week, Rendon hit a total of four home runs and tallied 12 RBI. The Houston native was also walked 10 times, giving him a total of 27 walks in the Blue & Gray's 17 games so far. His on-base average for the season is .605 and his slugging percentage is .787. Rendon now owns a 4.5-to-1 walks-to-strikeouts ratio and his home run total (six) and strikeouts (six) are now dead-even. Rice had some good news with the return to action of senior C/DH Diego Seastrunk in Sunday's win over Cal. Seastrunk had missed the last 12 games with a strained oblique.
SOUTHERN MISS
Southern Miss has won six of its last seven games, including a series sweep over Missouri State this past weekend. Sophomore OF Kameron Brunty hit .500 (6-for-12) against Missouri State with a double, triple, two RBI and two runs scored. He also took a home run away in Sunday's game, jumping high above the fence and bringing the ball back in the yard. Junior RHP Scott Copeland threw a complete game, three-hit shutout in game two of the Missouri State series. He struck out eight and walked no one for his third win of the season. Mark Ellis' walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth capped a three-run bottom of the ninth inning for a 4-3 victory in Friday's series opener vs. Missouri State. The Golden Eagles scored 10 runs in their final two at bats on Sunday in route to a 13-4 win. Southern Miss has scored 10 runs or more in six of the teams 14 games while have 10 or more hits in 10 games. The pitching staff has recorded 107 strikeouts in 14 games while holding opponents to a .234 average and a .302 slugging percentage.
TULANE
The Green Wave swept a four-game series from Towson over the weekend to improve to 10-6 on the season. Freshman OF Brandon Boudreaux posted his first career four-hit game to start the week at UNO and posted at least one hit in each of the five games last week. The freshman walked in all four games of the Green Wave's series with Towson, driving in at least one RBI in three of the four games, and didn't strikeout in 14 at-bats versus the Tigers. Boudreaux reached base safely two or more times in each game last week and is now batting .367 for the season with 11 RBI and 13 runs scored. Freshman SS Garrett Cannizaro has now hit safely in 15 straight games, while sophomore 3B Rob Segedin has extended his streak to 14 games. Cannizaro has reached base in all 16 of his games at Tulane and has scored at least one run in 11 of those contests. Junior RHP Nick Pepitone picked up his second win of the season on Friday evening vs. Towson and in the first game on Saturday he collected his first save of 2010. In 3.2 combined innings, he allowed just one hit and struck out three with only one walk. Sophomore RHP Robby Broach improved to 3-0 on the season on Sunday, allowing one run on four hits over six innings pitched with four strikeouts and one walk. Tulane batters have now produced 10 or more hits in 10 of 16 games this season and is batting .335 as a team (second in CUSA).
UAB
The Blazers opened last week with a 12-1 win over Alabama A&M before falling to four different California opponents at the San Diego State Tournament. Senior IF Luke Stewart was named to the all-tournament team over the weekend after hitting .417 (5-for-12) with one home run and four RBI over four games. Stewart hit his 30th career home run Sunday against Cal State Fullerton to move into a tie for fourth place on the Blazers' all-time homer chart. He is just one long ball away from tying second place on the list. Despite posting 19 fewer hits (123-142) than its opponents this season, UAB has managed to out-score the opposition by four runs (92-88). The Blazers have been able to manufacture runs by drawing 74 walks and stealing 25 bases. Their on-base percentage is the same as their opponents at .369. UAB nearly pulled off a dramatic rally in the first game of the tournament, rallying for six runs in the ninth inning and loading the bases before coming up one run short in an 8-7 loss to San Diego State. The Blazers managed four hits in the ninth, drew two walks and had the benefit of a pair of SDSU errors as they sent 12 batters to the plate.
UCF
The Knights were 2-2 last week, scoring 57 runs in a three-game series victory against Hartford over the weekend. The 57 runs were the most ever scored in three consecutive games against an opponent. UCF tied the school's single-game record with 28 hits in a 24-4 victory on Sunday. It also set another record with 11 runs in the first-inning, marking the most production in a first inning ever. In the three-game series, freshman 3B Chris Taladay went 11-for-14 for a .786 average, followed by Chris Duffy's 8-for-11, three homer performance. Duffy's hitting streak stretched to seven games, but after going 3-for-3 Sunday, he sat the bench for the final four innings, thus ending his streak of hitting a homer in three-straight outings. Duffy currently leads C-USA in batting average (.500), slugging percentage (1.167), hits (30), doubles (11), home runs (9) and RBI (30). He is tied for the lead with 19 runs scored and has posted a .595 on-base percentage. Taladay is batting .457 with 10 extra-base hits, while starting games at 3B, 1B and DH. Junior DH Derek Luciano's grand slam ignited the 11-run first inning on Sunday and he added another round-tripper later in the game. As a team, the Knights batted .399 last week with 13 doubles and 11 home runs in four games. The Knights have mashed 26 homers this year, with 10 different players recording at least one.
Awards and Honors
C-USA Pitcher of the Week
Todd McInnis (2/22)
Scott Copeland (3/15)
Johnny Bench Award Watch List
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
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"
Southern Miss will host UNO on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. the last home game in the month of March for Southern Miss.
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.
