Marshall University Athletics
Golden Eagles Up Next For Baseball
2/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Golden Eagles Up Next For Baseball
2/16/2005
HATTIESBURG, Miss. ? After a tough start to the 2005 season, the Thundering Herd baseball team will try to rebound this weekend with a three-game set at Southern Mississippi.
Game one of the series is set to start on Friday at 3 p.m. Saturday?s game is also slated to start at 3 p.m. with Sunday?s series finale being played at 1 p.m. All starting times are in central time. This will mark the first meeting between the future conference opponents.
Marshall (0-3) opened up at Mercer last weekend, dropping all three games of the series. Despite strong pitching, the Marshall hitters were unable to muster up much offense, scoring only two runs in the three games. Junior Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.) had the best opening series offensively for MU, batting .400 and scoring two runs. Freshman Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD), who was the designated hitter in the first three games, was also solid at the plate, tallying three hits and two RBI?s.
The Herd?s bright point in the opening weekend was the performance of its pitching, especially in the season-opening doubleheader. In game one, right-hander Chris Cummings (Huntington, WV) pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up only two runs on two hits. Freshman David Slovak (Louisville, KY), in his collegiate debut, showed a great deal of promise, pitching 5 1/3 innings of relief with only one unearned run being scored. In the second game of the doubleheader, junior Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA) went 7.1 innings, holding the Mercer offense to two runs on six hits.
For future Conference USA opponent Southern Mississippi, this will mark the first weekend of play. The Golden Eagles are coming off of a solid 2004 season, which saw them make it all the way to the Conference USA tournament championship game, before falling to TCU by a 3-1 score. In the NCAA Regionals, USM went 1-2, falling out of the tournament after a 7-3 loss to the College of Charleston.
Southern Mississippi was solid on both sides of the ball in 2004, ranking second in Conference USA in team batting average, batting .316 while their pitching staff ranked fourth in the conference with an ERA of 4.77.
Chris Cummings is expected to start game one of the series with Koutsavlis going on Saturday and junior Brian Knippelmeyer (Lincoln, NE) getting the ball for his second start with the Herd on Sunday.
Herdzone will have updates after each game this weekend. For live stats during the games, go to www.southernmiss.com under the baseball section.
