What do you know about Southern Miss Baseball? In NCAA Division I college baseball, the University of Southern Mississippi is represented by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles baseball team. They take part as a Conference USA participant. The team has participated in 18 NCAA Tournaments and hosted an NCAA Regional in 2003, an NCAA Super Regional in 2017, and an NCAA Regional in 2022. Four players from the Southern Miss baseball team are currently on Major League Baseball rosters, and the team has produced 19 All-Americans. Southern Miss is the only team in CUSA to have competed in every conference baseball tournament since the conference’s inception. Southern Miss has won six Conference USA Regular Season Championships (2003, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2022) and five Tournament Championships (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018, and 2019).
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Baseball at Southern Miss is benefiting from a record-breaking year!
The Southeastern Conference has historically significantly impacted local sports during any given season. But think about this: Mississippi State entered this season as the reigning national champion in college baseball. Early in the season, Ole Miss was rated as the best team. That looks more like a blackout than a shadow. It’s also nothing new for Southern Miss, which has long battled for recognition within its state despite consistently producing top-notch Baseball.
Given that, here’s a brief fact that some people might not be aware of:
Did you know that the Golden Eagles have won at least 40 games in six straight seasons, starting this spring? It is real. Only two Divisions I teams in the country have won at least 40 games in six straight seasons, and Southern Miss is one of them (Dallas Baptist is the other).
And did you know that this year Scott Berry surpassed all previous baseball coaches in terms of victories? He did. On May 1, the Eagles defeated UAB, giving Berry his 469th triumph as head coach in his second full season. You can calculate it, but that comes close to 40 victories per. Also, consider that Pete Taylor, Hill Denson, and Corky Palmer, Berry’s three predecessors, have all been inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Berry, a nice guy who never comes in last place, deserves a spot in the MSHOF, so please reserve one for him.
Although it may sound strange, Berry’s Southern Miss program has more respect outside its home state. It is real. Before Ewing and Wilkes’ injuries, the Golden Eagles attained a national No. 4. The Golden Eagles are currently ranked 14th in the country by DI Baseball. Several reputable national publications have predicted that Southern Miss will host an NCAA Regional with a national seed as high as No. 9.
All those factors have allowed Berry’s baseball team to leave the SEC’s long shadow this spring briefly. How far these Eagles can fly is still unknown. The CUSA Tournament is the next step, and the top-seeded Eagles will host it on Wednesday at Pete Taylor Park.
There are no predictions here, other than those teams with the strongest pitching staffs typically have a definite advantage in the NCAA Tournament baseball. The pitching staff at Southern Miss is the most diversified in school history. The statistics in this instance are accurate.
Baseball defeats Southern Miss 10-0 in the first game.
Peyton Chatagnier’s walk in the opening inning of the Super Regional on a sweltering Deep South day marked the top of the sixth inning’s innocent beginning. That same inning, Ole Miss went up by 10 after another seven runs.
Southern Miss was defeated 10-0 by the Rebels (36-22) in their first season-opening shutout victory. In this best-of-three series at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field, Ole Miss currently leads 1-0. Calvin Harris singled with two on after Chatagnier received a free pass. The hits continued after USM starter Hurston Waldrep was replaced by Justin Storm. A walk by Garrett Wood put runners on base. The Rebel lead was 4-0 when Tyler Stuart replaced Storm after a pitch struck Justin Bench.
Then, more Rebel runs got brought in thanks to RBI singles from Jacob Gonzalez, Tim Elko, and Kevin Graham. The Golden Eagles (47-18) substituted Drew Boyd for Stuart after Kemp Alderman recorded the game’s first out by striking out. Seven runs got scored in the inning due to a Hayden Dunhurst single to right field that brought Graham home. With no runs allowed through five and a third innings on 108 pitches, nine strikeouts, and only four hits, rebel starter Dylan DeLucia was nothing short of magnificent.
Ole Miss had a chance to score some runs in the top of the second inning after both starting pitchers replicated two strikeouts and a flyout in their respective first innings. Alderman struck out and then reached on a passed ball with one out. Alderman advanced to second on a Chatagnier walk after two outs. Wood entered the game but was unable to get the runners moving, getting out.
At the bottom of the second, DeLucia ran into some difficulty but managed to escape. Slade Wilks doubled to center field with one out. The Golden Eagles had something going with runners on first and second and one down when a DeLucia pitch struck Danny Lynch.
But at that point, DeLucia, now 6-2, got Gabe Montenegro to foul out to the catcher and Will McGillis to fly out to the right field. The third quarter ended with no goals. Ole Miss scored the game’s first two runs in the top of the third. After Justin Bench did so on four straight pitches from Waldrep, Gonzalez walked on four consecutive pitches. It was all about Baseball; they defeated Southern Miss 10-0 in the first game.
THE LATEST NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR SOUTHERN MISS BASEBALL CRACK THE TOP 5
This week, as the Golden Eagles climbed into the top five national polls, Southern Miss baseball made program history again.
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Southern Miss finished the week with victories over Tulane and UNO before sweeping Rice this past weekend for the first time in the program’s history. The Golden Eagles’ current streak of victories, which ties the school record set in 2017, is 14 games. With a 32-8 overall record and a 16-2 record in Conference USA play, Southern Miss is currently four games ahead of USM in the standings.
After ranking No. 5 the previous week, Perfect Game gave Southern Miss the highest ranking, placing them at No. 3. In D1 Baseball, Southern Miss improved from No. 6 to No. 4 and from No. 7 to No. 6 in Baseball America. Southern Miss improved from No. 15 to No. 8 in its top 30 polls for collegiate Baseball. The Southern Miss Baseball currently has an RPI of 12, according to warrennolan.com.
