University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Holds First Midweek Home Contest Versus Southern Tuesday
3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Stats: Southern Miss - Southern
TV: None | Webstream ($) |
Radio Network: Hattiesburg (WXHB-FM, 96.5; 97.7 and 104.5 HD2), Jackson (WJDX-AM 620), Columbia (WFFF-FM, 96.7), Pascagoula (WPMO-AM 1580), Southern Miss Gameday App (free), Tune In (free)
Pitching Probables (Southern Miss vs. Southern):
RH Walker Powell, So. (1-1, 3.94) vs. TBA, 6 p.m.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team is set to play its first home midweek game at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field, Tuesday, against Southern University starting at 6 p.m.
Southern travels to Hattiesburg for the fifth-ever meeting between the schools and the first meeting since the 2003 Hattiesburg Regional as each team has won twice in the series. The Jaguars won the regional opener 5-3, before Southern Miss eliminated Southern 18-1 the next day.
The Jaguars (6-12) travel to Hattiesburg to face the Golden Eagles (14-4) who finished last week 3-0, including a 2-0 start to Conference USA play.
Southern Miss outscored its opponents 28-8 last week which included back-to-back 12-run contests. The Golden Eagles opened up conference play by scoring six runs in the first inning and Nick Sandlin improved to 3-0 after Saturday's 12-2 win going seven innings, giving up only three hits and striking out a career-high tying 14 batters.
For his efforts, Sandlin earned both the C-USA Pitcher of the Week as well as honored as a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week.
Hunter Slater was a triple away from hitting for the cycle as he began conference play with a single up the middle, a double out to right and a 3-run home run. Slater now has two home runs this season.
Southern Miss completed the comeback for game 2 of Saturday's doubleheader with a 4-3 win to sweep the series against UTSA. J.C. Keys won his first game of the season after 3 1/3 innings, striking out three of the 12 batters faced. Matt Wallner also earned his third save of the season pitching the final inning for Southern Miss.
Wallner currently holds a five-game hit streak, the longest on the team, which began against Georgia Southern when he singled and hit a walk-off home run to win 3-2.
Sophomore right-hander Walker Powell improved to 1-1 with a 3.94 ERA after last week's 12-3 win at Tulane and will make his fifth-straight midweek start of the season against Southern. Powell went six innings, striking out six against Tulane for his longest outing of the season.
Southern Miss also remains in the national Top 25 rankings as Baseball America keeps them at No. 15, D1Baseball at 16, and Perfect Game at the 17 spot. The squad moved up two positions to No. 21 by Collegiate Baseball.
Luke Reynolds continues to lead the Golden Eagles with a .371 batting average, 24 runs scored, seven doubles, and four home runs. Wallner is close behind with three home runs and five doubles. Slater and Reynolds are now tied for hits with 26 and Slater leads the team with 20 RBI.
Southern Miss travels to Florida Atlantic this weekend who went 2-1 against Old Dominion in the opening weekend of conference play. The Owls took the first two games of the series and outscored the Monarchs 23-14. ODU travels to Miami on Wednesday.
