NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Privateers baseball team returns home for their second meeting against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Maestri Field.
The Privateers are coming off a tough series against the Texas Longhorns where they lost all three in Austin. The series finale went to the Longhorns by a 9-3 score. In the series, Miguel Useche was 3-for-9 with a double.
New Orleans (11-9) returns home where it has been gold for the Privateers. They are 9-1 at Maestri Field this season contrasted with a 2-8 mark outside the Lakefront. The Privateers have also faced a difficult road schedule with four 2022 NCAA Tournament teams and two Regional hosts.
Heading into the week, four Privateers have between 16 and 20 RBI through the first 20 games. Mitchell Sanford leads the way in the category with 20. Tyler Bischke has 18 while Tristan Moore and Jorge Tejeda have 16 each.
STARTERS
UNO: RHP-Beau Blanchard vs. USM: RHP-Billy Oldham
Blanchard had his longest scoreless outing in a Privateer uniform as he threw four shutout innings against the Longhorns on Friday. Blanchard will get his second midweek starting call of the season. He had a no decision in his first start at Tulane, a game the Privateers won 6-5.
The Privateer catchers have been solid defensively. Useche and Tejeda have a combined 169 chances on defense with no errors. They’ve combined to catch eight runners stealing in 19 attempts.
Kasten Furr ranks in the top 100 in the country and fourth in the Southland among toughest batters to strike out. Furr has only struck out eight times in 77 at-bats. He’s also in the top five in the Southland in runs scored with 22.
Southern Miss (12-7) defeated New Orleans 12-0 in the first meeting in Hattiesburg. Oldham also got the start that night and pitched five no-hit innings with nine strikeouts.
The Golden Eagles fell out of the most recent D1Baseball.com poll after losing two-of-three at Texas State in their Sun Belt opener. Slade Wilks is the leading Golden Eagles hitter with a .354 batting average and five home runs. Kros Sivley, who has two saves this year, has walked only one batter in 18.2 innings of work.
*Courtesy UNO Sports Information
