MOBILE, Ala. – After being on the road for four games last week, the University of South Alabama softball team returns home to host Southern Mississippi.  First pitch versus the Golden Eagles is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday night at Jaguar Field.

Game Notes (PDF)

GAME: 36 | VS. SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
Venue: Jaguar Field | Mobile, Ala.
Tue., April 3 | 6 p.m.

GAME INFORMATION
Television: None
Radio: 99.5 The JagFM
Live Stats: www.USAJaguars.com
Live Stream: www.USAJaguars.com
Twitter: @WeAreSouth_SB

Tickets: General admission tickets can be purchase for $5, while chair back reserved seating is available for $8.  Current South Alabama students with proper student ID will be allowed admission into the contest.

South Alabama JAGUARS
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | RPI: 48
Record: 18-17, 5-6 SBC
Head Coach: Becky Clark (Mobile, '95)
Team Slash Line (AVG / SLG / OBP) – .257 / .340 / .340
Runs Per Game: 3.5
Runs Per Game Allowed: 3.4

Southern Mississippi GOLDEN EAGLES
NFCA: -- | USA: -- | RPI: 168
Record: 14-25, 4-8 CUSA
Head Coach: Wendy Hogue (William Carey, '98)
Team Slash Line (AVG / OBP / SLG) – .264 / .352 / .343
Runs Per Game: 4.0
Runs Per Game Allowed: 4.9

SCOUTING THE JAGUARS    
– South Alabama (18-17, 5-6 SBC) returns home for its midweek contest after dropping three games at No. 21/20 Louisiana over the weekend.  USA fell 7-1 in the opener, but dropped a pair of one-run decisions in the final two, falling 5-4 in extra innings in game two and 3-2 in Sunday's finale.
– Kaleigh Todd continues to pace the club at the plate as she is batting .358, while her 38 hits are tied for ninth in the Sun Belt.  Todd also leads the team in runs scored (18) and stolen bases (9).
– On Sunday, Todd reached a significant milestone as she became the fourth player in Jaguar history to reach the 200-hit mark for her career.
– Brittani Reid is second on the club with a .320 average and of her 32 hits, 13 have gone for extra bases.  B. Reid leads the team with four home runs and her 15 RBI are second-most on the roster.  Her 55 total bases also rank among the SBC leaders.
– B. Reid is tied with Kristian Foster for eighth in the league in doubles with seven.  Foster leads the team with 19 runs driven in.
– Over the weekend against the Ragin' Cajuns, B. Reid recorded a pair of home runs, including a solo shot in the top of the eight in game two of the series.  
– South Alabama has 12 home runs on the year and five have come over the past week.
– Devin Brown (11-9) enters the week with a 2.16 earned run average to go along with her 136 strikeouts.  Brown ranks second in the Sun Belt in strikeouts, strikeouts (38) and innings pitched (129.1), while ranking third in ERA and opposing batting average.
– Brown ranks 26th in the NCAA in strikeouts and has gone the distance in 14 of her 17 starts.  She leads the team in five total shutouts – four solo and one combined.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES    
– Southern Mississippi (14-25, 4-8 CUSA) comes into Tuesday night's game after dropping all three games of its league series at Louisiana Tech over the weekend.
– The Golden Eagles have dropped their last five contests and since falling 10-4 to South Alabama in early March, USM has lost 14 of 19.
– After Southern Miss tied the game in the top of the fifth, Louisiana Tech responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 7-4 lead and added an insurance run in the sixth en route to picking up the 8-4 win.
– Destini Brown leads the club with a .354 average, to go along with her 35 hits and 20 runs scored.  She is 13-for-15 in her stolen base attempts and as a team, the Golden Eagles are 52-for-66.
– Karley Nichols and Ciarra Cherry are both hitting over .300, entering the week with a .339 and .330 batting average, respectively.
– Cherry and Alyssa Davis have three home runs each, while Samantha Papp has a team-best four and leads the Golden Eagles with 25 RBI.
– Kim Crowson leads the team with a 3.33 ERA and her six wins are tied with Samantha Robles for most on the team.
– Robles also leads the team in strikeouts (71) and innings pitched (107.2).
– The USM pitching staff enters play with a 3.93 earned run average and of the 305 hits allowed, 75 have gone for extra bases – 40 doubles, seven triples and 28 home runs.  

THE SERIES VS. SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI    
– The meeting between South Alabama and Southern Mississippi will mark the 20th in the all-time series between the two clubs.
– The two teams have met at least one each season with the exception of the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
– South Alabama picked up a 10-4 victory in Hattiesburg in the first meeting earlier this season on March 7.
– Last season, the two clubs met twice during the regular season, with each holding home field.  Southern Miss won the first meeting 2-1 in Hattiesburg and South Alabama then defeated the Golden Eagles 4-3 in Mobile in the second meeting of the season.
– The first meeting in the series in Hattiesburg during the 2007 season marked the first game in program history for South Alabama.
– South Alabama has won eight of the last 10, including the last six meetings in the series in Mobile.
– The lone tie in program history came on Feb. 21, 2009 in Hattiesburg, in which the game ended in a 6-6 tie.

INSIDE THE SERIES VS. SOUTHERN MISS    
Series: 13-5-1 (H: 8-1 / A: 4-4-1 / N: 1-0)
Extra-Inning Games: 1-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 1-0)
Run-Rule Games: 2-0 (H: 2-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
NCAA Tournament Games: 0-0 (H: 0-0 / A: 0-0 / N: 0-0)
First Meeting: 2/14/07
Last Meeting: 3/7/18
Longest South Alabama Streak: 4, 2x, last ('11-'15)
Longest Southern Mississippi Streak: 2 ('16-'17)
Current Streak: 2 by South Alabama
Last 5 – 4-1
Last 10 – 8-2

LAST TIME THEY MET    
– Kaleigh Todd and Kristian Foster each tied career highs with four-hit efforts to lead South Alabama to a 10-4 win over Southern Mississippi at the USM Softball Complex.
– The eight combined hits by Todd and Foster were part of a season-high 14 from the Jaguars in the win.  The 10 runs tied a season-best set earlier this season against Illinois.
– The Jaguars broke open a 2-2 game with a four-run fourth and a three-run fifth.  
– MC Nichols and Todd scored on a throwing error and Katelyn Gruich recorded a two-run single back up the middle in the fourth, while Nichols stole third and scored on a throwing error in the fifth.  USA's final two runs of the inning came on RBI base hits by Todd (triple) and Foster (double).
– After cutting the deficit to 9-4 and with runners on first and second, Devin Brown entered the circle and recorded a pair of strikeouts and got Nelson to ground out to end the inning. Brown then struck out the side to end the game after allowing a pair of Golden Eagle runners to reach.

THE JAGUARS VS. CUSA    
– South Alabama holds an all-time record of 94-59-1 (.612) against current Conference USA members.
– The 26 meetings versus Western Kentucky are the most by the Jaguars against any CUSA member just ahead of former Sun Belt members Florida International (24), Florida Atlantic (24) and Middle Tennessee (23).
– Charlotte and Texas-El Paso are the only two teams from the league that the Jags have yet to face in program history.
–South Alabama is 3-0 this season against the league, defeating UAB (6-4) in Birmingham on Feb. 28, Southern Miss (10-4) in Hattiesburg, 10-4 on March 7 and Western Kentucky (8-0, 6 inn.) in Mobile on March 14.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_Jags. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
    
Join the Bullpen Club, the softball specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund.  Members have access to purchase parking passes and receive Jaguar Softball gear.  All donations to the Bullpen Club go directly to support the South Alabama softball program.  For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/bullpenclub

—USA—