ATLANTA — While Southern Miss” pitching staff questions were finalized Wednesday, its injury concerns with a pair of key hitters gained a bit more clarity Thursday.
A day head of the Golden Eagles” NCAA regional game versus Mississippi State in Atlanta, Ferriss Trophy winner Tyler Koelling said he isn”t 100 percent healed from an injured hamstring that saw him miss the Conference USA tournament.
As expected, he will start today at 2 p.m.
“It feels good. It”s about 85 or 90, good enough to play,” Koelling said. “I”m just gonna do what I can to help the team.”
Koelling leads the Golden Eagles with a .367 batting average and 46 RBIs.
Koelling, an outfielder, likely will play designated hitter. That scenario, though, may hinge on teammate Michael Doleac”s health.
Doleac, a 6-foot-4 senior first baseman, has the “onset” of a stress fracture in his left foot and is questionable to play against the Bulldogs.
Doleac is batting .338 with two home runs and 39 RBIs.
Doleac took batting practice Thursday, but according to Southern Miss coach Scott Berry, his injury was evident during running exercises.
“Certainly, I want to put our best product on the field to give us the best chance to win, and physically they got to be ready to go,” Berry said. “At this point, with 24 hours to go, there”s some things you got to do to prove he can be in there. We got people that can step up and are gonna have to step up.
“When I look at him, I kind of see a (former LA Dodger) Kirk Gibson type of deal. Hopefully it”ll be the same outcome if that”s the case.”
If Doleac can”t start, junior B.A. Vollmuth could make the move from the left side of the infield to first base. Vollmuth started the season at shortstop and was moved to third base late in the season. However, he had five errors over a three-game stretch in two losses to Houston and one to Rice. He leads the team with 21 errors.
—Nostalgia in Russ Chandler Park
In 2009, Southern Miss qualified for its first College World Series.
The beginning of that historic run was in Atlanta, where the Golden Eagles won a regional for the first time in 10 previous tries.
Then a freshman, B.A. Vollmuth hit two home runs in a nine-run second inning for Southern Miss to get past host Georgia Tech, 12-8 in the regional final.
Southern Miss was the only No. 3 seed to advance to a Super Regional that year, where it won in Gainesville before going 0-2 in Omaha.
“Me and Tyler (Koelling) talked about it on the way over here, great things happened here in 2009,” USM pitcher Todd McInnis said. “We”re not gonna live in the past; we”re gonna come out here and play each and every day and hopefully everything works out for us. But coming into the stadium, you definitely could feel the emotions of what we experienced two years ago.”
—Golden Eagles not sweating rested Pollorena
Mississippi State pitcher Luis Pollorena said during his bullpen session this week he threw harder than he had all season.
His catcher, Wes Thigpen, raved about how much “life” his fastball had after two outings where the sophomore hadn”t pitched as well as he would have liked.
Southern Miss remembers well what Pollorena in top form can do after he pitched five-plus innings of shutout ball and gave up one hit in MSU”s 5-4 win in Pearl earlier this year.
Pollorena has had more than a week of rest, and, like the entire staff, feels rejuvenated after being overworked this season.
The approach today won”t be anything special, Southern Miss outfielder Marc Bourgeois said.
“I think it”s just stick to our gameplan and not get overwhelmed,” he said. “He”s got great stuff, but we”ve just got to stay in the middle of the field, think backside and keep hitting line drives and hard ground balls and we”ll be fine.”
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