Baseball Set to Play Inaugural Sun Belt Conference Series at Texas State

Dates        Time (CT)        Probable Rotation
Fri., 17       6 p.m.             RH Tanner Hall, Jr. (2-2, 3.68 ERA) vs. RH Cameron Bush, R-Jr. (0-0, 6.00 ERA)
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Sat., 18      2:30 p.m.       RH Matt Adams, Jr. (2-0, 2.70 ERA) vs. RH Levi Wells, Jr. (3-0, 0.51 ERA)
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Sun., 19    1 p.m.              RH Niko Mazza, So. (3-1, 1.96 ERA) vs. RH Nathan Medrano, Sr. (1-1, 6.62 ERA)
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss baseball team opens its inaugural season of Sun Belt Conference play this weekend as they travel to San Marcos, Texas, to face Texas State in a three-game weekend series.

Game times are set at 6 p.m., Friday, 2:30 p.m., Saturday and 1 p.m., Sunday, and can be seen on ESPN+, as well as heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network.

After being a charter member of Conference USA since the 1996 season, Southern Miss embarks on this new journey as they play the first of three new opponents in conference play in 2023, which also includes James Madison and Coastal Carolina. Southern Miss, who will play a total of four new opponents during the 2023 season, also played non-conference Illinois for the first time earlier this season.

The Golden Eagles meet a Bobcats team that head into the weekend with an 11-6 record after defeating TCU 8-4 in San Marcos, Tuesday night. Texas State finished last season 47-14 a season ago and made an appearance in the NCAA Stanford Regional. They are one of four Sun Belt schools to reach the NCAA Tournament last season. The other were Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina and Louisiana. All four of those schools are on the Golden Eagles' schedule this spring.

Southern Miss enters the weekend at 11-5 having won three-straight games after homering a season-high three times Tuesday night in an 8-1 victory at Southeastern Louisiana. Tate Parker led the way with three hits and three RBI for the visitors. Slade Wilks, who doubled and homered with a pair of RBI in that contest, leads the team in hitting with a .389 average with four home runs and 11 RBI.

Golden Eagle leadoff hitter Matthew Etzel has hit safely in each of the last six games, batting .375 over that span with eight runs scored, a double, a triple and three RBI.

After a solid five-inning start from Billy Oldham, Southern Miss starting pitching continues to excel. Through the first 16 games, Southern Miss starters are 9-4 this season with a 2.98 ERA. They have thrown 81.2 innings and allowed 60 hits, while giving up 30 runs (27 earned) with 34 walks and 98 strikeouts. Team have been hitting just .205 off Golden Eagle starting pitching in 2023. Two of the games have included one-hitters this season.

Following the Texas State series, Southern Miss finishes this five-game road swing at New Orleans Tuesday night. Game time in the Big Easy is 6:30 p.m.

Here are the other scheduled Sun Belt Conference series this weekend, starting Friday:

Coastal Carolina at James Madison
South Alabama at Georgia Southern
App State at Marshall
Arkansas State at Louisiana
Old Dominion at ULM
Troy at Georgia State (opens Saturday with DH)

Baseball Set to Play Inaugural Sun Belt Conference Series at Texas State

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Players Mentioned

Matthew Etzel

Tanner Hall

Niko Mazza

Billy Oldham

Tate Parker

Slade Wilks