#Southern miss conference realignment free

#Southern miss conference realignment free

This type of realistic hope was set when Southern Miss broke free from the shackles of a deformed Conference USA that looks nothing like its original iteration. This excitement has been grounded in the reality of the sport’s current landscape, where we seem to be morphing at hyperspeed into dual conference behemoths ruling over the rest of the schools that fight for scraps of relevancy amid an ever-shrinking pile of carcasses. There’s been a certain type of optimism permeating within the Southern Miss community in the leadup to this football season, one that hasn’t yet foolishly allowed itself to become too mesmerized by daydreams of a college football fantasy that will never be again. Storm escaped the inning with the Golden Eagles facing just a one-run deficit – a deficit Danny Lynch promptly erased with a solo homer, his third of the season against the Ragin' Cajuns.ĭavid Eckert covers sports for the Clarion Ledger.(Photo: Southern Miss Athletics, 247Sports) The inning could have been much worse, because Storm gave up a hit to the first batter he faced, but USM leftfielder Reece Ewing nailed Julian Brock at the plate trying to score from second. That prompted the Golden Eagles to replace him with Storm. Mazza, the USM starter, allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases with one out before giving up a two-run single to Heath Hood. Nothing to separate two sides earlyĭickerson opened the scoring with his second home run of the tournament, hooking it around the left-field foul pole for a solo shot.īut the Golden Eagles failed to secure a shutdown inning on the mound. He closed out the game for the Eagles, throwing 5.2 shutout frames while striking out eight and allowing just three hits. The Ragin' Cajuns made some solid contact against him early in his outing, but he grew into the game to the point where he was just about untouchable, striking out six of seven batters in a particularly dominant stretch between the fifth and seventh innings. Niko Mazza gave up two runs in 3.1 innings of work before handing the ball to Justin Storm out of the bullpen, who was outstanding. Less than 24 hours after they benefitted from a complete-game effort from Will Armistead, who had not started a weekend game all season, the Golden Eagles once again got what they needed from their pitching staff. OSTRANDER: Christian Ostrander to succeed retiring Scott Berry as Southern Miss baseball coach Southern Miss' pitching staff comes through again SEMIFINALS: Southern Miss baseball blows out App State to earn place in Sun Belt Tournament title game Louisiana: Live updates from Sun Belt Tournament title game That gave the Golden Eagles' bullpen all it needed against the Louisiana lineup.įULL UPDATES: Southern Miss baseball score vs. Blake Johnson made it six USM runs with an RBI double in the eighth. Two innings later, Slade Wilks drove a sky-scraping fly ball just over the right field wall for a two-run home run, his 20th of the season. These, after all, are moments to be savored.Įmerging from a tightly contested first four innings, Southern Miss (41-17) took the lead for good against Louisiana (40-22) on Dustin Dickerson's RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Golden Eagles have certainly spent some brainpower this week wondering whether they might be awarded a home regional by the NCAA Tournament Committee, but, as the dogpile formed, all of that could wait.

And the joy of having claimed another trophy for their legendary coach, Scott Berry, to add to his total before he retires at the conclusion of the season. The joy of having won the Sun Belt Conference in their first season in the league. The joy of a first conference tournament victory since 2019. There would be plenty of time to process the implications later.Īs Southern Miss baseball celebrated Sunday at Riverwalk Stadium after a 6-2 win over Louisiana, there was only joy on the Golden Eagles' faces. View Gallery: Dustin Dickerson: A look at the USM Golden Eagles baseball shortstop