USM’s road to Omaha begins at the Pete. What to know about Hattiesburg Regional
The NCAA baseball tournament will go through Hattiesburg for the second season in a row.
Pete Taylor Park will be hosting a regional for the third time since 2022 after another strong season from Southern Miss resulted in the Golden Eagles winning the Sun Belt tournament title and earning a program-best ninth overall national seed.
Hattiesburg will host Virginia, Jacksonville State and Little Rock, and is matched up with the eighth-seeded Gainesville bracket.
Here’s everything to know about the teams, when the games will be played, how to watch and how much tickets cost.
Get to know the field
The Hattiesburg Regional is among the strongest in the tournament by RPI. Every team is ranked inside the top-100 and the average RPI rank heading into the weekend is 38th.
Virginia (36-21) will be the two-seed after an eighth-place finish in the ACC. The Cavaliers are top-20 nationally in home runs. That could play to UVA’s advantage at The Pete, where the late May spike in humidity is conducive for long-ball production.
Last season’s Hattiesburg Regional saw 23 home runs hit in just seven games. Three different Cavs have 14 home runs, including second-team All-ACC outfielder A.J. Gracia.
Jacksonville State (45-13) was considered a borderline two-seed, according to NCAA selection committee chairman Michael Alford, but will travel to the Hub City as a three-seed.
The Gamecocks are automatic qualifiers after winning the Conference USA tournament and their strength lies in the rotation. Jax State has three left-handed starters in Steven Cash (2.94 ERA), Eli Pillsbury (4.07 ERA) and Beau Bryans (3.63 ERA) that have led the staff to the top team ERA in CUSA and the eighth-best in the country.
Little Rock (35-26) is another automatic qualifier that leans on its pitching. Friday’s likely starter against USM is Brannon Westmoreland, a 6-foot-6 right-hander with a 3.00 ERA.
While the Trojans have a high-strikeout staff, the unit does struggle with command at times. Little Rock is 252nd nationally in walks allowed.
The hosting Golden Eagles (42-15) are unsurprisingly a pitching-heavy club with four different arms with at least 50 innings pitched and an ERA below 3.20.
The lineup has plenty of power potential, as well. Four of the top eight home run leaders in the Hattiesburg Regional will be wearing Black and Gold.
The schedule and how to watch
The full weekend’s schedule was released on Tuesday with Friday’s game set to air on ESPN+. The broadcast schedule for the remainder of the weekend is to be determined. Here’s the slate.
Friday
- Game 1: Southern Miss vs Little Rock at 1 p.m.
- Game 2: Virginia vs Jacksonville State at 6 p.m.
Saturday
- Game 3: G1 loser vs G2 loser at 3 p.m.
- Game 4: G1 winner vs G2 winner at 8 p.m.
Sunday
- Game 5: G3 winner vs G4 loser at 3 p.m.
- Game 6: G4 winner vs G5 winner at 8 p.m.
Monday
- Game 7 (If necessary): to be determined
Ticket information
Pete Taylor Park officially seats just over 4,000, but standing-room availability means the building regularly holds over 5,000 visitors.
Tickets and parking were made available to the public beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at SouthernMiss.com/Tickets.
General admission for all-session passes is $100 per ticket. Game day sales will be offered as long as tickets are available.
Tickets on the aftermarket come with a heavier price tag. The lone all-session pass listing on SeatGeek.com is $832 at the time of this writing. Single game tickets for USM’s opener against Little Rock start at $204.
StubHub.com has single game tickets available for as low as $115.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 12:12 PM.
