Game notes

MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama baseball team will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., for a 6 p.m. contest against Southern Mississippi in the Jaguars' final non-conference game before opening Sun Belt Conference play.

Wednesday's contest will be streamed live and will be available for purchase through the All-Access section at SouthernMiss.com. The game will be broadcast live on WNSP 105.5 FM in Mobile, and can be accessed nationwide at WNSP.com. Live stats for every South Alabama baseball game are available through the multimedia section of USAJaguars.com, and in-game updates are provided via Twitter at Twitter.com/SouthALBaseball.

USA right-hander Matt Bell (1-2) will make his fifth start of the season in Wednesday's contest. USM has not announced its starter due to a Tuesday contest against New Orleans. Bell has made one career start against USM which came on March 26 last season. In that start, Bell tossed six shutout innings and struck out three with one walk but did not factor in the 3-1 Jaguar win.

South Alabama (8-7) enters the game on a three-game winning streak after sweeping its three-game series with Southern Illinois last weekend at Stanky Field. USA holds a 56-29 all-time lead over USM in a series that dates back to 1967. The Jaguars have won four consecutive games over the Golden Eagles under head coach Mark Calvi after earning a 6-5 win at Stanky Field and a 3-1 victory in Hattiesburg last season. Each of the four games between the schools since Calvi took over at USA has been decided by two runs or less. The Jags last fell to the Golden Eagles in 2011, when 12th-ranked Southern Mississippi defeated USA 7-4 at Stanky Field. Earlier in the 2011 season, USM defeated the Jags 15-3 in Hattiesburg, which marked the last time USA lost at Southern Miss.

USA leads the Sun Belt conference in sacrifice bunts (17) entering the week, but is last in the league in runs scored (51) and RBI (46). The Jaguars rank second in the SBC in fielding percentage (.977), however, they have committed at least one error in five consecutive games and eight total during that span.

South Alabama is 3-4 in night games this season and 1-2 in road contests at night, but the Jaguar pitching staff has posted a 2.39 team ERA in seven contests under the lights and has recorded 53 strikeouts against 27 walks in 64 innings pitched during that span while limiting the opposition to a .209 batting average. Bell, Hunter Soleymani and Dillon Buhrkuhl held No. 8 Mississippi State hitless over the final six innings of last week's contest in Starkville, Miss.

Hayden Jones leads USA with a .305 batting average through 15 games. He is hitting .357 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored in seven road contests this season. Jones recorded three hits in the Jags' last road contest which came last Wednesday at MSU.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).