University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Softball Faces Nationally Ranked Tigers
4/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss softball team returns to action with a midweek road game against No. 8 LSU on Wednesday evening at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge, La. The game is slated for 6:00 p.m.
Live stats and in-game tweets (@SouthernMissSB) will be available throughout the game. In addition, the game will be streamed online via SEC Network+ and available through the WatchESPN app. Lyn Rollins (play-by-play) and Yvette Girouard (color analyst) will be calling the action.
The Golden Eagles enter the week 18-20 overall, while the Tigers are 28-9 on the season.
Southern Miss is coming off a pair of extra-inning walk-off victories over the weekend. The Conference USA series victory was the first for the Golden Eagles since 2014 when Southern Miss claimed two games of a three-game series on the road against Louisiana Tech.
True freshman Samantha Papp came through in the clutch for the Golden Eagles over the weekend as the rookie notched a pair of walk-off singles to help Southern Miss to the series victory. In the season opener, she made her only hit of the game count, driving in the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth to lead Southern Miss to a 3-2 extra-inning victory over WKU -- the first win over the Lady Tops in school history. Papp followed that clutch performance with a three-hit game in the series finale, including another walk-off hit. Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning, she knocked a game-winning base hit into right center field to give Southern Miss its second walk-off win of the weekend.
Junior transfer Lauren Holifield led the team on the weekend, batting .455. Holifield was 5-for-11 with a double, a home run, two runs scored, a RBI, and two walks. She boasted a team-high .818 slugging percentage with a .538 on-base clip. Holifield was joined by Katie Cleary who also hit a home run against the Lady Toppers. With her three-run home run against WKU, Cleary moved into Southern Miss' Career Top 10 for RBI.
In the circle, Jillian Johnson posted a perfect 0.00 ERA in four appearances last week. The sophomore scattered 14 hits (one extra-base hit) in 15.0 innings allowing just three runs -- all unearned -- extending her streak of no earned runs allowed to 21.2 innings, dating back to March 20 vs. UAB.
LSU holds a 20-5 advantage in the all-time series with Southern Miss, including a 15-3 record in Baton Rouge. The Golden Eagles won four of the first six meetings between the two teams, but the Tigers have gotten the better of the Black and Gold recently.
The two teams have not met since playing a home-and-home series in 2011. Each team won on their respective fields with the Golden Eagles posting a 7-0 victory over the No. 25 Tigers on March 16, 2011. Current LSU assistant coach Howard Dobson was the head coach of Southern Miss in the game.
