University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Regular Season Concludes at UAB for Baseball
5/16/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 16, 2012
Game 51 vs. UAB | Thursday, May 17 | 6:30 p.m. CT | Birmingham, Ala.
| Watch LIVE! 
| Listen LIVE! 
Game 52 vs. UAB | Friday, May 18 | 6:30 p.m. CT | Birmingham, Ala.
| Watch LIVE! | Listen LIVE!
Game 53 vs. UAB | Saturday, May 19 | 1:00 p.m. CT | Birmingham, Ala.
| Watch LIVE! | Listen LIVE!
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team travels to Birmingham, Ala., to face UAB in its final regular-season series of the campaign at Young Memorial Field.
The Golden Eagles (28-22 overall, 12-9 C-USA) will take on the Blazers at 6:30 p.m., both Thursday and Friday, before completing the regular season with a 1 p.m., contest on Saturday. The games can be heard on one of the affiliates of the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network as well as through All-Access, for a fee, at SouthernMiss.com.
Southern Miss holds down a third-place tie in the standings with Tulane after sweeping East Carolina last weekend. The Blazers come into the weekend with a 28-25 overall record and 8-13 in league, good for seventh place.
Despite holding a 20-19 record over UAB in Birmingham and a 53-30 advantage overall, Young Memorial Field has not been a kind place for the Golden Eagles its last two trips there. Southern Miss has posted just one victory in each of its last two trips there, after collecting a sweep over the Blazers during the 2006 campaign.
Andrew Pierce, the reigning C-USA Pitcher of the Week, will get the call on the mound in the series opener to reverse that trend for the Golden Eagles. He has posted a 7-3 record with a 1.77 earned run average to go along with 90 strikeouts against just 14 walks. Redshirt freshman lefthander Jake Drehoff is expected to start for Southern Miss on Saturday after tallying a 6-2 mark to go along with a 3.09 ERA. Freshman southpaw Mason Robbins then will pitch the finale as he has posted a 1-0 mark with a 4.03 ERA.
The Blazers will go with righthander Michael Busby in the opener, who has posted a 3-4 mark with a 4.54 ERA. UAB is undecided on its pitching rotation for the remainder of the series.
Offensively, Robbins continues to lead the Golden Eagles with a .335 batting average with three home runs and 33 runs batted in. Ashley Graeter is next at .323 with a homer and 26 RBI, while Isaac Rodriguez is at .300 with five doubles and 14 RBI.
Junior first baseman Blake Brown, who leads the team in both homers (6) and RBI (35) got back on track last weekend against the Pirates, belting a two-run go-ahead double in the seventh inning of the suspended game and another RBI double in the series finale.
Following the weekend series, the Golden Eagles next will travel to Pearl Miss., for the 2012 Conference USA Baseball Championship presented by Trustmark. The tournament begins Wednesday at Trustmark Park, the Double-A home of the Mississippi Braves.
