How a phone call in 1990 changed Southern Miss baseball forever
A phone call to Corky Palmer in 1990 changed Southern Miss baseball forever.
The Meridian Community College baseball coach needed a new assistant and then-Southern Miss head coach Hill Denson and assistant Charlie Gray knew just the man.
Just over 30 years old, Scott Berry had been working at what was then called Southwest Missouri State, now known simply as Missouri State. Gray had run into Berry several times on the recruiting trail and came away impressed by their interactions.
When Palmer lost assistant Bert Stevens, he gave Denson a call that would cement USM baseball’s distant future as a perennial title contender.
“(Palmer) was looking for an assistant so he asked me and (Charlie Gray) about it,” Denson told the Sun Herald. “Charlie told him that Scott (Berry) was the man to do it. Of course by then I had already met Scott, too, and liked him. I knew he was a good one.”
Palmer was hesitant because he wanted a Mississippi native who could seamlessly work the local high schools, but Gray eventually persuaded Palmer into hiring Berry.
Now, 32 years later, Berry is the all-time winningest coach in USM baseball history.
One after another
Denson coached the Golden Eagles to their first NCAA Regionals appearances in 1990 and 1991 and left the school with 468 total wins.
A few years after Palmer took over in Hattiesburg, he hired Berry onto his staff at USM. Berry worked, learned and helped Palmer build the program into national prominence. Southern Miss went to regionals 10 times and made its first trip to the College Baseball World Series in 2009.
Berry was named Palmer’s successor after that trip to Omaha and began his career 458 wins short of Palmer and 468 short of Denson.
Nearly 13 years later, Berry watched as his team fought to put away the UAB Blazers on a Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles had just lost a weekend series for the first time since facing Dallas Baptist in February and were looking to avoid getting swept as a footnote to a record-breaking 15-game win streak.
Southern Miss would win the game, 9-6, and it was magic number 469 for Berry.
It was an emotional victory for Berry, just not because of the record.
“The emotions were more involved in our team that game,” Berry said. “A much-needed win with our backs against the wall. I don’t know if (the record) has even set in.”
That’s not out of a lack of respect. Berry has a tight bond with both Palmer and Denson, forming a trio that created a winning tradition in the house that Pete Taylor built.
The three are closing in on 1,400 combined wins at USM. Every single win connected through history from 1984 to present day.
“To me, Hill and Coach Palmer, they’re like brothers to me,” Berry said. “We’re all three really, really close. We’ve spent lots of time together over the last 32 years. So it was a bittersweet feeling.”
A new target
These days, Denson spends his time in retirement on the Louisiana side of Yucatan Lake. He first realized Berry was chasing his record around the same time he first learned he even owned that particular piece of Golden Eagle history.
Denson has been badgering Berry about it since then.
“I didn’t know until about a month ago he was in the running to do that and that I even had the record,” Denson said. “This has just come up recently. We’ve been harassing each other about it ever since.”
Now that Berry sits atop the revered mountain of USM baseball coaches in total wins, Denson is hoping his friend will begin chasing a new record.
“Now that you got that record, big boy, it’s time for you to work on the next one,” Denson relayed his conversation with Berry. “And that is, we think you need to start working on the loss record. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve probably got that one, too. So we gave him a new mission. We gave him the advice that if he started coaching more then that would help him with the loss record.”
Indeed, Denson does hold the loss record with 386 losses. Berry is far behind, however, with the fewest losses of any USM coach at 245.
Berry would need to coach about seven more years at his current pace to catch up with Denson.
Regardless of the records and who falls where, the two remain close. It’s a bond that intertwines decades of Golden Eagle baseball in a way that can only be found hidden in the pine trees of Hattiesburg.
“He and I and are close, close, close friends,” Denson said. “I consider him one of my best friends there is. That’s the way we are.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
