MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama baseball team will open the 2015 season Friday when it hosts New Orleans at 6:30 p.m. at Stanky Field.

The opener is the first of a three-game weekend set, with game two scheduled for Saturday at noon and the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Each game of the series will be broadcast live on WNTM 710 AM in Mobile, and is also available on the iHeartRadio app. Every Jaguar home game will be streamed live and available for purchase online through the All-Access section of USAJaguars.com. Live stats for each USA game are available through the multimedia section of USAJaguars.com, while in-game updates are provided at Twitter.com/SouthALBaseball.

A trio of newcomers are scheduled to make their Jaguar debuts on the mound in the series, with left-handed junior Austin Stephens set to start the season opener. Right-hander Ryne Long will start Saturday's second game of the series, and southpaw Joey Jones will start the series finale.

UNO will counter with three right-handers with Nick Halliday set to start the opener, followed by Shawn Semple and Alex Smith, respectively.

USA returns 16 letterwinners from last year's squad, including Cole Gleason – a 2014 second-team all-SBC selection – as well as sophomore Cole Billingsley who redshirted the 2014 season. New Orleans returns 17 letterwinners from a squad that finished 11-38 in the Southland Conference last season under head coach Ron Maestri.

South Alabama holds an 88-61 all-time lead over New Orleans in a series that dates back to 1970. USA has faced UNO more than any other opponent in the program's 50-year history. The Jaguars split a pair of games with the Privateers in New Orleans last season before the series finale was cancelled due to inclement weather.

The Jags have won seven of the last eight meetings in the series dating back to 2010. Last year's 4-3 loss to UNO in the series finale snapped a seven-game Jaguar win-streak in the series. Prior to last season, the Privateers had not defeated USA since 2010 when they took two of three games in a Sun Belt Conference series at Stanky Field.

South Alabama is 30-20 all-time in season openers, and is 27-7 when opening the season at home. USA fell to Tennessee Tech 5-4 in 11 innings at Stanky Field to open the 2014 season.

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).