University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Earn National Ranking; Play at UL Monroe Tuesday
3/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team climbs into the national polls just prior to completing a five-game road swing Tuesday night at Louisiana-Monroe. Game time is set at 6 p.m., from Warhawk Field.
The Golden Eagles, fresh off of winning three games in the Cougar Invitational in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., including wins over nationally ranked College of Charleston and Connecticut, find themselves in the national rankings for the first time this week. Southern Miss makes its first appearance of the year in the Collegiate Baseball poll at No. 25 and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll at No. 30.
Southern Miss has posted a 15-3 record and is enjoying its best 18-game start since the 2004 campaign when that squad went 16-2.
The Golden Eagle pitching staff continues to pitch well in 2011 as the staff combined for a 1.36 earned run average in the three-game tournament over the weekend. With a complete-game victory for Geoffrey Thomas in the finale against UConn, the Golden Eagles have a pitcher go the distance in a start for the first time since Scott Copeland did it on May 20, 2010, against Memphis.
Collin Cargill, the team's closer, keeps performing at a high level including a 7 2/3 relief performance last Saturday in a 15-inning game against Rhode Island to get his first victory of the season. Cargill has not allowed a run over 16.1 innings this season and has saved four games for the squad this year.
Offensively, the team currently hits .299 collectively with seven players over the .300 batting mark.
Senior Tyler Koelling maintains the team lead in hitting with a .388 batting mark. He is closely followed by Justin Diliberto with a .368 batting mark, and then Kameron Brunty and Marc Bourgeois at .333 each. Isaac Rodriguez holds a .322 batting average, while B.A. Vollmuth is at .319 and Adam Doleac holds a .314 mark. Vollmuth leads the team in both home runs (seven) and runs batted in (23).
Southern Miss will send freshman righthander Jackson Posey to the mound for his first collegiate start against the Indians. Posey is 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA on the season. He will face righthander Wil Browning, who has posted a 1-1 mark with a 14.14 ERA.
Following the ULM contest, the Golden Eagles return home Wednesday to face South Alabama in a 6 p.m., game. This is a makeup date from a March 8 rain out. Fans are asked to use their tickets from the originally scheduled date for admission to this game.
