Friday, March 26
Hattiesburg, Miss.
6 p.m.
Louisiana Tech University
at
Southern Miss
Photo by: Elise Bordlee
Bulldogs Open C-USA Play at Southern Miss on Friday
3/25/2021 11:00:00 AM | Baseball
RUSTON, La. – No. 21 Louisiana Tech will open Conference USA play this weekend with a four-game series at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles have both been red hot as of late with each team winning at least eight of its past 10 games.
Friday will mark the first of eight four-game conference series in 2021. All Conference USA series this season will consist of four games, one nine-inning game on Friday, two seven-inning games on Saturday and one final nine-inning game on Sunday.
Game times for the series at Pete Taylor Park are 6 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Saturday's first contest of the doubleheader will begin at 2 p.m. with the second game being played afterward. All four games will stream live on CUSA.tv.
The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles have played 10 times since 2017, and they will match up eight times during the 2021 regular season with four games at Pete Taylor Park and four games at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in April.
Series Information
Game Times (Friday-Sunday): 6 p.m. | 2 p.m. & then Game 2 | 1 p.m.
Location: Pete Taylor Park (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)
Live Video Stream: CUSA.tv
Radio/Streamed Radio Broadcast: KNBB 97.7 FM (Friday-Sunday) | latechsports.com (Friday-Sunday)
Projected Starting Pitchers (Friday-Sunday)
LA Tech: Jonathan Fincher (LHP), Ryan Jennings (RHP), Cade Gibson (LHP), Jarret Whorff (RHP)
Fincher: 3-0, 1.50 ERA, 30.0 IP, 34 K, 6 BB
Jennings (1): 2-1, 3.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 24 K, 7 BB
Gibson (2): 1-1, 3.54 ERA, 20.1 IP, 18 K, 5 BB
Whorff: 4-1, 2.59 ERA, 31.1 IP, 27 K, 8 BB
Southern Miss: Hunter Stanley (RHP), Walker Powell (RHP), Ben Ethridge (RHP), Drew Boyd (LHP)
Stanley: 3-1, 2.64 ERA, 30.2 IP, 46 K, 5 BB
Powell (TBD): 3-1, 1.29 ERA, 28.0 IP, 29 K, 4 BB
Ethridge (TBD): 1-0, 2.45 ERA, 25.2 IP, 33 K, 1 BB
Boyd: 1-2, 4.61 ERA, 13.2 IP, 19 K, 3 BB
About the No. 21 Diamond Dogs:
Louisiana Tech won its sixth game in-a-row on Tuesday, overcoming a one-run deficit in the seventh inning to complete the season sweep of ULM. Second baseman Taylor Young delivered one of his best performances of the season in the 9-7 win, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBI and three runs scored. Young's two-out, two-RBI double off the center-field wall in the bottom of the seventh put the Bulldogs in the lead for good.
No. 21 LA Tech remained patient at the plate in Tuesday's victory, drawing 10 walks. Three of the Bulldogs' 10 walks came in a two-run first inning, which is when Tech scored both of its runs in the frame without recording a base hit. The Bulldogs defeated ULM despite the Warhawks tallying six more hits, marking the first time since a 3-2 win over UL-Lafayette on Feb. 20, 2019, that Tech won a game while being outhit by five or more.
Left-handed reliever Kyle Griffen nailed down the third save of his career on Tuesday, closing out the final 1.2 innings to secure the Bulldog victory. With his eighth appearance in 2021, Griffen moved into second place all-time in career pitching appearances in program history at 79.
The Bulldogs have posted an impressive 11-2 record in weekend series in 2021, outscoring opponents 97-38 in 13 games. LA Tech has swept three of its weekend series and is a perfect 5-0 on "championship" Sundays. LA Tech's pitching staff has hurled 116 total strikeouts while allowing just 39 walks in weekend contests this season.
Bulldog cleanup batter Steele Netterville has heated up during Tech's six-game winning streak, knocking in seven runs to boost his team-high to 21 RBI. Netterville has tallied five of his seven doubles on the season over the past five games, recording three two-baggers in an 8-6 win over Tulane on Sunday.
LA Tech holds a 10-24 all-time record against Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles have won four of the last five and eight of the last 10 games against the Diamond Dogs. LA Tech won its most recent series at Southern Miss back in 2018, taking two games out of three from the No. 9 Golden Eagles at Pete Taylor Park. The Bulldogs scored the first five runs of the game in an 8-3 win on Sunday, May 13, to clinch the series victory.
Scouting Southern Miss:
Southern Miss also enters this weekend's series on a winning streak, winning four straight and nine of its past 10. The Golden Eagles went to Tuscaloosa and used a seventh-inning rally of their own to knock off the Alabama Crimson Tide 5-4. Southern Miss entered Tuesday's game against the Tide coming off a series sweep of Missouri State at Pete Taylor Park.
The Golden Eagles have been dominant on the mound in 2021, posting the 16th-best team ERA in the nation at 2.91. Much of Southern Miss' pitching success has come from limiting walks to opposing batters, ranking third in the nation with just 2.16 walks given up per nine innings. All four of the Eagles' projected starting pitchers this weekend own a 6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio or better. Starters Hunter Stanley, nephew of LA Tech track and field coach Gary Stanley, and Walker Powell both earned Conference USA Preseason honors.
Offensively, freshman Reed Trimble paces Southern Miss with five home runs, 20 RBI, 41 total bases, a .577 slugging percentage and in a number of other categories. Southern Miss enters the weekend hitting .208 as a team, which ranks last in the C-USA entering conference play.
Southern Miss holds a 10-2 record at Pete Taylor Park in 2021, recording back-to-back weekend sweeps to hold a six-game winning streak at home. Mississippi native and Bulldog head coach Lane Burroughs was an assistant coach at Southern Miss from 1999-2007. Burroughs has coached in either Mississippi or Louisiana for all but one of his 25 years as a collegiate graduate assistant, assistant coach or head coach.
Friday will mark the first of eight four-game conference series in 2021. All Conference USA series this season will consist of four games, one nine-inning game on Friday, two seven-inning games on Saturday and one final nine-inning game on Sunday.
Game times for the series at Pete Taylor Park are 6 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Saturday's first contest of the doubleheader will begin at 2 p.m. with the second game being played afterward. All four games will stream live on CUSA.tv.
The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles have played 10 times since 2017, and they will match up eight times during the 2021 regular season with four games at Pete Taylor Park and four games at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in April.
Series Information
Game Times (Friday-Sunday): 6 p.m. | 2 p.m. & then Game 2 | 1 p.m.
Location: Pete Taylor Park (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)
Live Video Stream: CUSA.tv
Radio/Streamed Radio Broadcast: KNBB 97.7 FM (Friday-Sunday) | latechsports.com (Friday-Sunday)
Projected Starting Pitchers (Friday-Sunday)
LA Tech: Jonathan Fincher (LHP), Ryan Jennings (RHP), Cade Gibson (LHP), Jarret Whorff (RHP)
Fincher: 3-0, 1.50 ERA, 30.0 IP, 34 K, 6 BB
Jennings (1): 2-1, 3.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 24 K, 7 BB
Gibson (2): 1-1, 3.54 ERA, 20.1 IP, 18 K, 5 BB
Whorff: 4-1, 2.59 ERA, 31.1 IP, 27 K, 8 BB
Southern Miss: Hunter Stanley (RHP), Walker Powell (RHP), Ben Ethridge (RHP), Drew Boyd (LHP)
Stanley: 3-1, 2.64 ERA, 30.2 IP, 46 K, 5 BB
Powell (TBD): 3-1, 1.29 ERA, 28.0 IP, 29 K, 4 BB
Ethridge (TBD): 1-0, 2.45 ERA, 25.2 IP, 33 K, 1 BB
Boyd: 1-2, 4.61 ERA, 13.2 IP, 19 K, 3 BB
About the No. 21 Diamond Dogs:
Louisiana Tech won its sixth game in-a-row on Tuesday, overcoming a one-run deficit in the seventh inning to complete the season sweep of ULM. Second baseman Taylor Young delivered one of his best performances of the season in the 9-7 win, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBI and three runs scored. Young's two-out, two-RBI double off the center-field wall in the bottom of the seventh put the Bulldogs in the lead for good.
No. 21 LA Tech remained patient at the plate in Tuesday's victory, drawing 10 walks. Three of the Bulldogs' 10 walks came in a two-run first inning, which is when Tech scored both of its runs in the frame without recording a base hit. The Bulldogs defeated ULM despite the Warhawks tallying six more hits, marking the first time since a 3-2 win over UL-Lafayette on Feb. 20, 2019, that Tech won a game while being outhit by five or more.
Left-handed reliever Kyle Griffen nailed down the third save of his career on Tuesday, closing out the final 1.2 innings to secure the Bulldog victory. With his eighth appearance in 2021, Griffen moved into second place all-time in career pitching appearances in program history at 79.
The Bulldogs have posted an impressive 11-2 record in weekend series in 2021, outscoring opponents 97-38 in 13 games. LA Tech has swept three of its weekend series and is a perfect 5-0 on "championship" Sundays. LA Tech's pitching staff has hurled 116 total strikeouts while allowing just 39 walks in weekend contests this season.
Bulldog cleanup batter Steele Netterville has heated up during Tech's six-game winning streak, knocking in seven runs to boost his team-high to 21 RBI. Netterville has tallied five of his seven doubles on the season over the past five games, recording three two-baggers in an 8-6 win over Tulane on Sunday.
LA Tech holds a 10-24 all-time record against Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles have won four of the last five and eight of the last 10 games against the Diamond Dogs. LA Tech won its most recent series at Southern Miss back in 2018, taking two games out of three from the No. 9 Golden Eagles at Pete Taylor Park. The Bulldogs scored the first five runs of the game in an 8-3 win on Sunday, May 13, to clinch the series victory.
Scouting Southern Miss:
Southern Miss also enters this weekend's series on a winning streak, winning four straight and nine of its past 10. The Golden Eagles went to Tuscaloosa and used a seventh-inning rally of their own to knock off the Alabama Crimson Tide 5-4. Southern Miss entered Tuesday's game against the Tide coming off a series sweep of Missouri State at Pete Taylor Park.
The Golden Eagles have been dominant on the mound in 2021, posting the 16th-best team ERA in the nation at 2.91. Much of Southern Miss' pitching success has come from limiting walks to opposing batters, ranking third in the nation with just 2.16 walks given up per nine innings. All four of the Eagles' projected starting pitchers this weekend own a 6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio or better. Starters Hunter Stanley, nephew of LA Tech track and field coach Gary Stanley, and Walker Powell both earned Conference USA Preseason honors.
Offensively, freshman Reed Trimble paces Southern Miss with five home runs, 20 RBI, 41 total bases, a .577 slugging percentage and in a number of other categories. Southern Miss enters the weekend hitting .208 as a team, which ranks last in the C-USA entering conference play.
Southern Miss holds a 10-2 record at Pete Taylor Park in 2021, recording back-to-back weekend sweeps to hold a six-game winning streak at home. Mississippi native and Bulldog head coach Lane Burroughs was an assistant coach at Southern Miss from 1999-2007. Burroughs has coached in either Mississippi or Louisiana for all but one of his 25 years as a collegiate graduate assistant, assistant coach or head coach.
Players Mentioned
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