BATON ROUGE — When the Southern Miss Golden Eagles take the field at Alex Box Stadium tonight in the Baton Rouge Regional, a very familiar face will take his place on the hill.

Vidalia High graduate Barry Bowden will draw the start as the No. 2 seeded Golden Eagles take on the No. 3 seeded New Orleans Privateers at 6 p.m. in the first game of the double-elimination regional.

Bowden has established himself as the ace of the Southern Miss staff, filling the Friday night role in the Golden Eagles weekend pitching rotation.

The senior has an 8-3 record with a miniscule 1.62 ERA in 66.2 innings pitched. He also was named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week three times, including twice in a row.

However, a mid-season muscle strain in his shoulder kept him out for four weeks and put a damper on his senior season.

“It was tough watching the team play without me,” Bowden said. “I tried to rehab and come back as quick as I could. It was very tough knowing I should have been out there. I tried to stay positive and be there for the team providing leadership.”

Bowden came back from the injury to post three quality starts, including picking up a win against Marshall in the Conference USA Tournament.

Southern Miss was an at-large selection to the NCAA tournament, being placed in the Baton Rouge Regional with New Orleans, LSU and Texas Southern.

Should the Golden Eagles win tonight, they would move to the winners bracket and play the winner of the LSU, Texas Southern game on Saturday.

Now that the Golden Eagles are in the postseason, the pressure is more intense. USM is in its sixth consecutive regional, but is still looking to advance to its first super regional.

If the Golden Eagles are going to make it there, Bowden will need to continue to pitch well.

However, pressure is something that Bowden has thrived on throughout his career.

“Yes there is pressure, but I enjoy having pressure on me,” Bowden said. “I like being the guy everybody looks to being the Friday night guy and getting the series started off with a win.”

And Bowden is expecting to have some support behind him.

“I feel great about the regional,” Bowden said. “There’s going to be a lot of hometown people here supporting me. I have a lot of friends that go to LSU so it will be nice to have some support behind me.”