Southern Miss wins regular season, now has sights on C-USA tournament title

Southern Miss finished the week atop Conference USA and will head into this week's conference tournament at MGM Park in Biloxi as the No. 1 seed.

The Golden Eagles (23-6, 39-15) finished the regular season with a three-game series sweep of Marshall in West Virginia. USM won 10-2, 7-4 and 18-9, with the Thursday win ensuring Southern Miss of the conference regular season title.

The Conference USA Tournament opens Wednesday in Biloxi with FIU facing Florida Atlantic. Top-seeded Southern Miss will begin its quest to capture the regular season and conference tournament titles in the same year with a 4 p.m. game against No. 8 seed UAB.

The Golden Eagles swept the Blazers in conference play in April at Birmingham.

The Championship Game on Sunday, May 27, will be televised by CBS Sports Network, while all other games will be available on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.

Ole Miss captured the SEC West title over the weekend, taking two of three games from Alabama in Tuscaloosa by scores of 3-2, 0-3 and 10-8. The Rebels (18-12, 42-14) enter the SEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed when action gets under way in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday.

The Rebels will play Wednesday against the winner of the Kentucky-Auburn game played Monday. The games will be televised on the SEC Network.

Mississippi State, meanwhile, finished the season strong with a sweep of SEC East champion Florida. The Bulldogs finished in a three-way tie for third place in the West Division after besting the Gators at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville by scores of 6-3, 12-4 and 13-6.

The No. 9 seed Bulldogs open SEC Tournament play on Tuesday with a 4:30 p.m. game against No. 8 seed LSU. If the Bulldogs get past the Bayou Bengals, they will take on the Florida Gators for the fourth time in a week.

SEC standings

This story was originally published May 20, 2018 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Southern Miss wins regular season, now has sights on C-USA tournament title."