University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagle Baseball Travels to Auburn for Three-Game Tournament
3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 1, 2012
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team will face a trio of squads this weekend when they travel to Auburn, Ala., for a tournament to be played at Plainsman Park on the Tigers' campus.
The Golden Eagles will play Charleston Southern on Friday at 1 p.m., Purdue at 12 noon on Saturday and then complete their weekend slate with host Auburn at 3 p.m., on Sunday.
Southern Miss (6-3) takes a four-game winning streak into the weekend after beating SEC foe Alabama 14-2 at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field Wednesday night that included a season-high for both runs and hits (16). The offensive explosion raised the team's batting average 26 points to .276 heading into the Charleston Southern contest.
Freshman Mason Robbins paces the Golden Eagles in hitting this season with a .400 batting mark, as he currently holds a team-best six-game hitting streak. Kameron Brunty is next at .370, but will not be in action this weekend as he suffered a hand injury in his at bat in the sixth against Alabama.
Fellow freshman, Connor Barron, who returned to the lineup against Alabama after missing three games with an ankle injury, holds a .360 batting average to go along with a team-best five runs batted in, while redshirt freshman Michael Sterling is at .357.
Southern Miss continues to shine on the mound as the pitching staff has posted a 1.50 earned run average, allowing just 50 hits and 35 walks over 78 innings of work. The relief corps surrendered its first earned run since the opening game in the ninth against Crimson Tide, which accumulated to 31.1 innings.
Redshirt-sophomore Jay Myrick (0-0, 0.00) gets the nod on the mound in Friday's tournament opener against Charleston Southern (4-4). Myrick pitched 6 2/3 solid relief in his first outing last Friday night against Troy in which he allowed an unearned run on two hits with a pair of walks and nine strikeouts.
Jake Drehoff, a redshirt freshman from Alpharetta, Ga., goes for his third straight pitching victory to start his season against Purdue (5-1). Drehoof has collected a 1.50 ERA over 12 innings of work, getting six innings in each of his first two starts - wins over Nicholls State and Troy.
Sophomore Boomer Scarborough (1-0, 1.00) will take the mound on Sunday against Auburn (6-4) as the Golden Eagles make their first trip to Plainsman Park since the 2010 NCAA Regionals. Scarborough will be making his third start of the campaign and has posted eight strikeouts over nine innings of work.
Following this weekend's tournament, Southern Miss returns home Tuesday night, March 6, when they entertain South Alabama in a 6 p.m. contest.
