University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
C-USA Baseball Championship at Stake Versus Rice
5/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 18, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The 2011 Conference USA baseball regular-season championship will be decided this weekend in a three-game series at Pete Taylor Park.
The series matches league-leading Southern Miss against second-place Rice, which comes into the action a game behind the Golden Eagles in the standings.
The three-game set opens Thursday with a 6 p.m., contest, followed by a 6 p.m., tilt Friday and a 1 p.m., first pitch on Senior Day this Saturday. Thursday's game will be televised by CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports - Comcast Cable in Hattiesburg Channel 735 digital cable/Channel 393 High Definition).
In the 16 years of league play, this will be the first time the championship will be decided in head-to-head play over the final series. The Golden Eagles, which have accumulated a 22-3 home record in 2011, need to win at least two games in the series to win the championship outright. Should Rice win two games, the teams would tie for the league crown and the Owls would take the No. 1 seed into next week's 2011 Conference USA Baseball Championship presented by Trustmark. Should Rice sweep the series, they would win the league.
The two teams have battled each other for the league's tournament title in each of the the previous two seasons, as Rice captured the 2009 tournament 8-6 in Hattiesburg, while Southern Miss collected a 7-4 decision in last season's title game which was played at Cougar Field in Houston.
The Golden Eagles (37-13 overall, 15-6 C-USA) look to rebound from dropping just their second league series of the spring last weekend at Houston, while Rice (36-17, 14-7) took two of three from Memphis at home and then defeated Texas State, 6-4, at Reckling Park Tuesday night.
The Owls lead the overall series 12-6 which dates back to 2006, but the two schools have split the last six games 3-3.
Southern Miss has led the league race for most of the season, garnering three sweeps, coming UCF, Marshall and UAB.
Prior to Thursday night's contest, the Southern Miss Athletics Department will pay tribute to Coach C.J. "Pete" Taylor, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 92 and who the home facility of Golden Eagle baseball is named.
Southern Miss is expected to go with the trio of right-handed pitchers in Todd McInnis (7-1, 2.89 ERA), Geoffrey Thomas (10-2, 2.95 ERA) and Jonathan Thompson (6-1, 3.48 ERA), respectively, in the series. Rice will counter with three right-hander hurlers as well, including Austin Kubitza (5-3, 2.04 ERA), Matthew Reckling (4-1, 2.91 ERA) and John Simms (3-1, 2.89 ERA).
