University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Starts Road Swing at Northwestern State
3/14/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 14, 2011
Southern Miss vs. Northwestern State (Brown-Stroud Field/Natchitoches, La.)
4:30 p.m.
Probables - RH Boomer Scarborough (0-0, 5.40 ERA) vs. TBA
Radio: Friday - 96.5 FM (WHXB, Laurel-Hattiesburg), 96.7 FM (WFFF, Columbia); 96.7 (WUJM-FM, Biloxi-Gulfport), 620 AM (WZRX, Jackson); pregame starts 30 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch/Audio broadcasts available through SouthernMiss.com and All-Access
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team begins a five-game road swing Tuesday afternoon when they play a 4:30 p.m., contest at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La.
The Golden Eagles (11-3) are coming off a three-game home sweep of Missouri State in which they collected double-digit runs and hits in each of the contests. Southern Miss tallied a season-high 16 hits in the Friday game and a season-best 13 runs in the Saturday affair.
The offensive prowess has allowed the team's batting average rise to .303 for the campaign as eight Golden Eagles sport batting marks of .300 or better. Senior Tyler Koelling paces the attack with a .397 batting average, while Marc Bourgeois is next at .351, followed by B.A. Vollmuth and Chase Fowler .333 apiece.
Vollmuth, a junior from Biloxi, Miss., also leads the team in both home runs (five) and runs batted in (19).
Southern Miss faces a Northwestern State team that is 5-10 on the year, after losing two of three to McNeese State to open Southland Conference play last weekend.
This will be the 19th meeting between the schools as the Golden Eagles lead 13-5. Southern Miss won two of three games in a three-game set at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field last season. This will mark the first game the program has played in Natchitoches since the 1986 campaign and the Eagles are 5-2 all-time there.
Freshman righthander Boomer Scarborough (0-0, 5.40) is scheduled to make his first start of the year in the contest. The Bay St. Louis, Miss., product had his previous scheduled start rained out last week.
Following the NSU game, the Golden Eagles return to the road when they travel to Charleston, S.C., for the Cougar Invitational. Southern Miss plays the College of Charleston on Friday (4 p.m.), Rhode Island on Saturday (4 p.m.) and then complete the tournament with a Sunday meeting with Connecticut (9 a.m.).
