How Southern Miss baseball could still host NCAA regional, despite USM’s recent slump
The month of May has not been kind to the Golden Eagles.
Since a record-breaking 15-game win streak that covered most of April, Southern Miss has found itself on the other end of the roller coaster.
The team is 3-5 in its past eight games, including back-to-back series losses against UAB and Old Dominion. From as high as No. 3 in the polls, USM has dropped to as low as No. 20.
It’s not all bad news, though. The Golden Eagles pitching staff has done well, keeping opponents to four runs or fewer in the past seven games.
It’s the offense that has struggled to put together scoring opportunities. In the past four games, USM has averaged just 2.5 runs per game and struck out 15 times in a 4-1 loss to Ole Miss.
Though the Golden Eagles are sliding in the wrong direction, there’s still plenty of time and a lot of movement on which USM can capitalize.
For example, Oregon recently suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of No. 2 Oregon State, and split a series with UC-San Diego. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Maryland is flying into hosting contention with a recent series win over Rutgers.
According to D1 Baseball, USM is still projected to host a regional at No. 12. Sitting just inside the top-16 and sporting a recent loss against Ole Miss, there’s little room for error if Scott Berry’s squad wants to bring a regional to Hattiesburg again.
Southern Miss, which is sitting at No. 26 in the RPI, has a chance to recover against Conference USA’s second-place team, UTSA, this weekend.
Following a road trip against Middle Tennessee, USM will also have the conference tournament to play its way back into the good graces of college baseball’s polling arbiters.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 12:19 PM.
