Baseball Entertains William Carery Sunday at 2 p.m.
10/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 21, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team will entertain cross-town neighbor William Carey in a 2 p.m., exhibition contest Sunday at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field. The two teams are expected to play a 14-inning contest.
The Golden Eagles, which finished 39-19 and reached their ninth consecutive NCAA Regional last spring, have been practicing for a month and third-year coach Scott Berry said that it is time for his club to get a chance to see action against another team in game-like conditions.
"It's time for us to play somebody else," Berry said. "We have been beating up on each other three times a week with intra-squad scrimmages and everyone knows what everyone is doing and what they can do. It is time to see what we can do against someone else and how we react."
The 2012 Southern Miss squad looks to replace five position player starters as well as restock the entire starting pitching rotation as well as a closer spot from a season ago and his gives Berry an opportunity to evaluate his players to fill those roles and also a perfect way to see how his squad will handle different game situations that spring up during a contest against another opponent.
"I want to see how we react to situations that we have been working on all fall when we know that it is not predetermined situations," Berry said. "I want to see how we compete against somebody else. We have been in such a routine now since Sept. 21, we have become comfortable in what we have been doing and it is time to fell a little bit of that game-type pressure outside of the practice situation. "
There have been some growing pains this fall for a young Golden Eagle club that was ranked as the No. 13 best recruiting class by Collegiate Baseball last month and No. 3 by Baseball America earlier this week. But with the hardship faced, Berry has also seen improvement and adjustments that come with experiencing the game more at this level.
"I have seen them struggle and I have seen them have success," Berry said. "With the struggle, in the right way, it is going to bring success later on and that is what we have seen in the young guys and the new guys. One thing that we have to have is leadership out of our upper classmen and those that have been involved in the program for a while. We also have to have some older guys step up and to embrace some roles that they haven't had to play before.
"Obviously, starting pitching is a major concern for us, since we lost everything last year. We are completely gutted as far as a rotation goes and we are starting over. That, though, is what we call opportunities for somebody."
Admission is $5 for general admission seating.