It’s hard to do much better than Southern Miss did in C-USA’s preseason honors

The Southern Miss baseball team dominated the 2018 Conference USA preseason selections on Wednesday.

The Golden Eagles took 11 out of 12 first-place selections in a poll of the league’s coaches and is considered the heavy favorite to repeat as C-USA regular season champions. Rice, which is picked to finished second, was the only other team to pick up a first-place vote.

USM also swept the preseason individual honors. Sophomore outfielder/pitcher Matt Wallner was name the preseason Player of the Year and junior reliever Nick Sandlin was named the Pitcher of the Year.

Sandlin was 10-2 last season with eight saves, 2.38 ERA in 29 appearances.

Wallner was named the C-USA Freshman of the Year in 2017 after batting .336 with 19 homers and 63 RBIs.

Wallner and Sandlin also landed on the All-Conference Team along with senior outfielder Mason Irby, who batted .338 with a homer and 40 RBIs last year.

Rice and Florida Atlantic also landed three players a piece on the All-Conference Team.

Southern Miss opens the 2018 campaign with a series against Mississippi State in Hattiesburg on Feb. 16-18.

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 1:28 PM with the headline "It’s hard to do much better than Southern Miss did in C-USA’s preseason honors."