By Staff
from special reports
March 23, 2004
HATTIESBURG The No. 16 (Baseball America) Southern Miss Golden Eagles will take on No. 8 Ole Miss Rebels tonight at Pete Taylor Park. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m.
This marks the 103rd meeting between the two schools, with Ole Miss leading the series 66-36. The Rebels have won six of the last 10 meetings dating back to 1999. The two teams have split the series every year since 1999 except for the 2001 season, when Ole Miss won both meetings. Last year, Ole Miss won the first meeting in Oxford 6-3 and Southern Miss won the game in Hattiesburg on 8-2.
Southern Miss (17-3, 2-1 Conference USA) just completed a Conference USA weekend series win over Houston, including Sunday's come-from-behind victory when the Golden Eagles scored a run in the eighth inning and one in the ninth to complete the comeback.
Ole Miss (18-1, 3-0) is coming off a Southeastern Conference series sweep of Vanderbilt. The Rebels won Friday's game 5-4, Saturday's 6-5 and Sunday's 3-1 and are on a seven-game winning streak. Ole Miss opened its season with 11-straight wins, including series sweeps over Birmingham Southern, South Alabama, Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Illinois. Arkansas State handed Ole Miss its first loss on March 10.
Ole Miss is scheduled to pitch sophomore lefthander Eric Fowler, who is 2-0 with a 6.41 ERA. In six appearances, Fowler has pitched 19.2 innings, given up 14 runs on 20 hits, struck out 18 and walked six.
The Golden Eagles are scheduled to start sophomore righthander Daniel Best, who is 1-2 with an ERA of 6.88. In five appearances, Best has given up 13 earned runs on 19 hits in 17 innings. He has 13 strikeouts and nine walks.
Jarrett Hoffpauir leads USM in hitting, posting a .442 batting average.