University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Travels to Pearl to Face Mississippi State
3/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Stats:Southern Miss - Mississippi State
TV: None
Radio Network: Hattiesburg (WKZW-FM, 94.3), Jackson (WJDX-AM 620), Columbia (WFFF-FM, 96.7), Gulfport/Biloxi (WTNI-AM 1640/WXBD-AM 1490); Southern Miss Gameday App (free)
Webstream Link ($): None
Live Stats:
Pitching Probables -
LH Lucas Laster, Sr. (3-0, 2.35 ERA) vs. RH James McMahon, Sr., (4-0, 1.31 ERA), 6:30 p.m.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team returns to the road, Tuesday, as they travel to Trustmark Park in Pearl to face Mississippi State. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m., and the Golden Eagles are the designated home team.
Southern Miss (13-8-1) comes into the contest having split a Conference USA series at Louisiana Tech over the weekend. The Golden Eagles registered season-high totals for runs and hits (18) in winning the first game of the series, 13-4, while dropping what was the final game of the set, 2-1, on a wild pitch in the ninth. The final game with LA Tech was rained out.
This will be the fourth-straight game away from home for the Golden Eagles as the squad has won four of their last five games and are 9-4 in the month of March. Southern Miss also looks to snap a six-game losing streak to the Bulldogs, which includes a 4-3, 11-inning loss to MSU last April at Trustmark Park.
Freshman Taylor Braley (Hattiesburg, Miss.) leads the team in batting average with a .417 on the strength of a 9-for-15 string, including a 5-for-5 performance, over the last three games for a .600 average during that span. Senior Connor Barron (Hattiesburg, Miss.) ranks second on the club with a .345 mark, while senior Matt Durst (Whitehouse, Texas) ranks third at .341.
The Golden Eagle pitching staff continues to lead C-USA in earned run average with a 2.28, with James McMahon, who is slated to start against the Bulldogs, having the best ERA on the club at 1.31.
As for defense, Southern Miss ranks No.2 in C-USA in fielding percentage at .970 and its 26 double plays are the most in the league.
MSU (18-8) comes into the contest having lost two of three at Kentucky last weekend. Following the contest with the Bulldogs, Southern Miss travels to league foe Rice this weekend. The game times are 6 p.m., on Friday, 2 p.m., on Saturday and 1 p.m., on Sunday. The Friday game with the Owls will be televised on Fox Sports 2 (FS2).
