Baseball Continues Season-Opening Homestand with Ilinois for a Weekend Series

Probable Rotation:
Dates        Time (CT)        Probable Rotation
Fri., 24       6 p.m.             RH Riley Gowens, R-Jr. (0-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. RH Tanner Hall, Jr. (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
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Sat., 25      2 p.m.             RH Jack Crowder, Jr. (0-0 2.25 ERA) vs. RH Matt Adams, Jr. (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
                   ESPN+ | Listen Only | Live Stats | Radio Affiliates
Sun., 26    12 p.m.            RH Jack Wenninger, Jr. (1-0, 3.60 ERA) vs. RH Niko Mazza, So. (1-0, 1.69 ERA)
                   ESPN+ | Listen Only | Live Stats | Radio Affiliates

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss baseball team continues its season-opening home series when they take on Illinois for a three-game series at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

Game times are set for 6 p.m., Friday, 2 p.m., Saturday and 12 noon, Sunday. All three games will be webcast through ESPN+ and the entire series can be heard on the Southern Miss Sports Network.
The Golden Eagles are enjoying their fifth 4-0 start under Scott Berry and have accomplished that by excelling in all three phases of the game.

The Southern Miss offense has 16 of its 34 hits this season for extra bases and have averaged 6.0 runs per contest, including 12 Tuesday night versus New Orleans.

As for pitching, the staff has collected two one-hit shutouts to open the campaign and the team's ERA is 0.50 through the first four games, having surrendered just two earned runs. The staff has also fanned 52 and walked just nine to open the year.

As for defense, the Golden Eagles have made just two errors to start the season.

The Fighting Illini head to town with a 2-2 record to start the 2023 campaign. They opened the season last weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C., where they defeated Youngstown State twice (9-6,10-5) and lost a pair of games to host and nationally ranked Wake Forest (8-1, 10-1).

Dan Hartleb is in his 18th season as the squad's head coach. He was D1Baseball's Big Ten Coach of the Decade (2010s) and has led his program to four NCAA Tournament appearances, including his last trip in 2019. The 2015 club enjoyed a 50-10-1 record and reached the NCAA Super Regional.

The Golden Eagles, which have never played Illinois in baseball, are 20-12 all-time against the Big Ten and last met a squad from that league to open the 2019 campaign, sweeping Purdue (Feb. 15-17) in three games.

The most meetings between a school in the league and Southern Miss is with Ohio State, in which the Golden Eagles are 7-6. Southern Miss is also 4-3 over Minnesota, 4-0 over Indiana, 3-1 over Purdue and 1-0 against both Michigan State and Nebraska. The program has also lost its only meeting with Iowa (1929) and Northwestern (2003), while never having met Michigan. Penn State, Rutgers and Illinois in the current configuration of the league.

Following the Illinois series, the Golden Eagles close out the month of February with a trip to Pearl, Tuesday, to face in-state foe Mississippi State. Southern Miss will be the designated visiting team. Game time is 6 p.m.

Baseball Continues Season-Opening Homestand with Ilinois for a Weekend Series

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Players Mentioned

Tanner Hall

Niko Mazza

University of Southern Mississippi Athletics