Feb. 21, 2012

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss will try to hit the softball field for the first time in over a week when they travel to Hammond, La., to take on Southeastern Louisiana (1-7) in a 6 p.m. non-conference, midweek game at North Oak Park.

The Golden Eagles (2-2) were rained out a week ago when they were scheduled to travel to Nicholls State and had their tournament washed out this past weekend. Southern Miss has not taken the field since a Feb. 12 date against Central Arkansas.

Southern Miss was led offensively in that weekend tournament by senior left fielder Stephanie Shiflet, who went 5-for-9 at the plate and was a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases. Also contributing at the plate was sophomore first baseman Taylor Brown who has a team-high six hits and senior second baseman Britney Dinelt with a team-best three doubles.

The Lady Lions are hitting .256 as a team with junior Ariell Van Hook (.409), senior Trish Bliss (.353) and sophomore Megan McCollum (.333) leading the way. Southeastern has a 7.10 team earned run average. Junior Kati Morse (0-2, 6.56 ERA), junior Kenna Terry (0-3, 6.58 ERA), senior Vicki Honeycutt (1-0, 7.00 ERA) and sophomore Jessie Browne (0-2, 14.54 ERA) have all seen action in the circle for the Lady Lions.

Southern Miss is 25-21 all-time against the Lady Lions and is 14-8 in non-conference, non-tournament openers since the program's inception in 1983.

Following the single mid-week contest, the Golden Eagles will return home to the Southern Miss Softball Complex to host their third and final home tournament of the season, the Gold Pub and Grill Classic, where they will welcome Mississippi Valley State, IUPUI, Nicholls State and Louisiana Tech to the Hub City.