University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Softball Travels to South Alabama for Midweek Tilt
3/20/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 20, 2012
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - After enjoying five straight games at home, the Southern Miss softball team will travel to Mobile, Ala., to take on the Jaguars of South Alabama in a single game, midweek tilt on Wednesday.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. from Jaguar Field.
Southern Miss (10-14, 2-4 C-USA) is coming off a 3-2 week and looks to build momentum heading into another tough Conference USA weekend when they take on the Sunbelt Conference member Jaguars (17-8, 5-1 SBC).
Freshman Alyssa Linn and junior Hayley Hopkins lead a Jaguars' squad that boasts a .297 team batting average, hitting at .377 and .353 clips, respectively. The freshman also has a team-best 29 hits while slugger Brittany Fowler leads the team with five home runs.
In the circle, the Jaguars sail low with a 2.12 team ERA, led by Jessica Dobson's 1.08 mark in 26 innings. The primary hurler, however, for South Alabama is Hannah Campbell whose 86 innings are a team-high with a 2.59 ERA and 82 strikeouts.
For Southern Miss, true freshman Caroline Walker and Leslie LeJune have continued to swing the bat exceptionally well over the past two weeks and will look to carry that momentum into Wednesday's showdown.
LeJune, a preseason All-C-USA member, stretched her reached base streak to 11 games with a 7-of-14 performance last week that saw her average rise from .308 to .342. Walker, the team's primary shortstop, showed her range last week with a pair of acrobatic diving catches and her .508 slugging percentage is a team-best.
Pitching for Southern Miss was also strong over the past week as Courtney Ramos and Beth Dietrich combined to hold Southern scoreless with just four hits over two games and Ramos tossed the team's first one-hitter since April 20, 2011. It was also the first time the Golden Eagles had consecutive shutouts since April 2010.
Wednesday's meeting will be the 11th all-time in the series that South Alabama leads 6-3-1 after the team's split a pair of games last season with both squads winning on their home field.
