University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Hosts Ragin' Cajuns for Pair of Midweek Contests
4/2/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Stats: Southern Miss â€" UL-Lafayette
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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. UL-Lafayette): RH J.C. Keys (2-2, 6.27) vs. LH Harris Hogan (5-2, 2.66), 6 p.m.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. â€" The Southern Miss baseball hosts UL-Lafayette for a pair of midweek contests scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at 6 p.m., each night at Pete Taylor Park/ Hill Denson Field.
After winning its third-straight conference series of the season last weekend, the Golden Eagles improved to 19-7 overall, 6-2 in league play. The series win against the Rice Owls was the seventh-straight conference series win dating back to last season's sweep at Middle Tennessee.
Nick Sandlin threw a career-best eight innings against the Owls to open the weekend series and fanned 13 batters and allowed only two hits to earn him his third Conference USA Pitcher of the Week award this season. Sandlin was also named a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week after Friday's performance, the second time he's won both awards in three weeks.
Sandlin leads C-USA with 73 strike outs, 13 more than Matt Canterino of Rice who resides in second place.
Sophomore power-hitter Matt Wallner seems to have hit his stride this season boasting the team's current longest hitting streak having hit safely in the last six games for the Golden Eagles. Wallner's RBI in Saturday night's walk-off win was the team's third game-winning triumph in the team's final at bat this season. Wallner also hit his second grand slam in two weekends in the final game of the Rice series. After the weekend, the outfielder posts a .348 batting average off 32 hits and leads the side with 29 RBI.
Wallner, Hunter Slater and Luke Reynolds lead the squad with six home runs each. Slater collected his first two-homer game of his career against Ole Miss and now leads the Golden Eagles with a .369 batting average and 38 hits.
Junior right-handed pitcher J.C. Keys will make his second midweek start on Tuesday. Keys threw four innings and struck out three batters against the Rebels last Tuesday and has 18 strike outs on the season.
The midweek contests against the Ragin' Cajuns are part of the longest home stand for Southern Miss this season. Tuesday and Wednesday's game are the fourth and fifth contests of an eight-game stretch in 10 days. The Ragin' Cajuns come to town with a 12-15 overall record after losing last weekend's home series to Arkansas State. Colten Schmidt tossed a complete game for the Ragin' Cajuns for the last game of the series and fanned seven batters.
Southern Miss remains in the national Top 25 Rankings after Perfect Game placed the Golden Eagles at No. 14, D1Baseball at No. 13, and Baseball America at the No. 12 spot.
The Golden Eagles conclude its current homestand by hosting WKU this weekend.
