Baseball Opens Sun Belt Conference Play at Home with Marshall This Weekend

Friday, March 15

Pete Taylor Park

7 p.m.

Southern Miss

Marshall

Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com

Baseball Opens Sun Belt Conference Play at Home with Marshall This Weekend

3/14/2024 3:33:00 PM | Baseball

Game Notes

Dates                  Time (CT)           Probable Rotation
Fri, 15                  6 p.m.                  RH Drew Harlow, Sr. (2-2, 5.16 ERA) vs. RH Niko Mazza, Jr. (3-0, 1.93 ERA)
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Sat., 16                              2 p.m.                  LH Bryce Blevins, So. (0-0, 1.71 ERA) vs. RH Billy Oldham, Sr. (3-0, 3.00 ERA)
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Sun., 17              1 p.m.                  RH Carter Lyles, Sr. (0-1, 4.38 ERA) vs. RH Will Armistead, Sr. (0-1, 6.60 ERA)
                               ESPN+ | Listen Only | Live Stats | Radio Affiliates

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss baseball team opens its second season of Sun Belt Conference play when they welcome Marshall to Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field for a three-game series this weekend. The first game takes place Friday with a 6 p.m., first pitch.

All three games of the series will be streamed via ESPN+ as well as heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network and at SouthernMiss.com.

In just its second Sun Belt season, the Golden Eagles (11-6) finished second in the regular season a year ago and won the league's tournament played at Riverfront Stadium in Montgomery, Ala. This will be the first time the Golden Eagles will face Marshall in baseball in the Sun Belt and the first time to play them since they were both members of Conference USA in 2019.

Under second-year coach Greg Beals, the Thundering Herd enter Hattiesburg with a 6-10 record. They dropped an 11-2 midweek decision to in-state foe West Virginia in Charleston, W.Va., after defeating SEMO twice at home last weekend. Marshall now has a new baseball home, Jack Cook Field in Huntington, which is in its first season.

Here are some facts about Golden Eagle play heading into Sun Belt play. The program has captured 20 league victories for seven straight seasons, finished no lower than second in a league since 2016 and no lower than third since 2012, won 159 of 245 league series and collected 83 sweeps, while only having been swept 16 times for a 65.9 series win percentage. They are also 17-9 on opening days since 1996.

Both Dalton McIntyre and Slade Wilks currently are tied for Southern Miss's longest hitting streak of the year at nine games. Eleven different Golden Eagles have active hitting streaks going, including the next longest of three games by Davis Gillespie.

In the last five games, the top four batters in the Golden Eagle order have combined to hit .386 (34x88 with 17 runs, 6 doubles, 7 home runs and 17 RBI). Over that span, only two Golden Eagles hitting in the top four spots in the order did not register a hit.

Offensively, Southern Miss scored 26 of its 114 runs in the opening frame this season, good for 22.8 percent of its scoring production. The Golden Eagles have scored in the opening inning in 10 of 17 games this season and are 7-3 in those contests.

Following the Marshall series, the Golden Eagles travel to Pearl to face Ole Miss, Tuesday, at 6 p.m.