Baseball Returns Home for Weekend Series with Missouri State

Dates        Time (CT)        Probable Rotation
Fri., 23       6 p.m.            RH Michael Lindsey, Jr. (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. RH Niko Mazza, Jr. (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
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Sat., 24       1 p.m.            RH Brandt Thompson, Sr. (0-0, 7.36 ERA) vs. RH Billy Oldham, Jr. (1-0, 3.00 ERA)
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Sun., 25       1 p.m.            LH Brendan Beaver, Sr. (0-0, 2.70 ERA) vs. Will Armistead, Sr. (0-0, 1.80 ERA)
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss baseball team continues a string of playing 10 of the first 12 games at Pete Taylor Park to open the season this weekend when the Golden Eagles entertain Missouri State in a three-game weekend series. The series gets underway at 6 p.m., Friday.

The series can be seen via ESPN+, as well as heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network.

The Golden Eagles have opened the season at 4-1. It is the third-straight season Southern Miss has done this and for the eighth time over the last nine years. Southern Miss started 3-2 during the 2021 campaign.

Missouri State comes to Hattiesburg sporting a 3-1 record. Under 42nd-year head coach Keith Guttin, who has accumulated a 1,376-896 record in his career, the Bears won two of three last weekend at ULM and won at Oral Roberts 10-6 on Tuesday. The 2024 season will be the last for Guttin, who helped former Golden Eagle head coach Scott Berry get into coaching. Berry is a 1989 Missouri State graduate.

Through the first five games, Golden Eagle pitching has produced solid numbers as the squad has fanned 63 and walked just 15 in 45 innings with a 4.00 ERA. In four of the contests, the pitching staff accumulated at least 13 strikeouts, including a season-high 14 against New Orleans on Wednesday.

Offensively, Southern Miss exploded for 15 runs and 12 hits against the Privateers, both of which are season highs, while also adding a season-best 12 walks. Southern Miss scored a season-high four runs in three different innings in the game.

Both Nick Monistere and Matthew Russo each collected three hits and five RBI against UNO. Monistere was a triple shy of the cycle as collected his first hits of the year and scored four times. Russo doubled twice, including a three-run two-bagger in the opening frame. He added a two-run single later in the contest.

The two teams have played 22 games with the Golden Eagles holding a 16-6 overall record. Every game in the series has been played at Pete Taylor Park, dating back to the 1990 season. Southern Miss has swept the last three weekend sets that the two schools have played, coming in 2010, 2011 and 2021. MSU played three different teams in a weekend at Hattiesburg during the 2013 season, including the Golden Eagles., which was also the last win for the Bears.

Following the Missouri State series, the Golden Eagles travel to Biloxi to face Nicholls in a Tuesday contest at Shuckers Ballpark. Game time is 6 p.m.

Baseball Returns Home for Weekend Series with Missouri State

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Players Mentioned

Will Armistead

Niko Mazza

Nick Monistere

Billy Oldham

Matthew Russo