Southern Miss drops Super Regional final to Tennessee
Scott Berry’s final tour has come to an end one game short of Omaha.
Southern Miss fell in the Hattiesburg Super Regional final to Tennessee, 5-0, in a weather-delayed contest that took a packed Pete Taylor Park well into Monday night.
Tennessee third baseman Zane Denton hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning to distance the College World Series-bound Volunteers in what was otherwise a pitcher’s duel between the battling staffs.
The game was the retiring Berry’s last as head coach of the Golden Eagles. He left Hill Denson Field with a school-record 528 wins and the nation’s longest active streak of seasons with 40-plus wins with seven.
But for Berry, his career isn’t defined by numbers.
“The most important thing is, people will remember the person you were,” Berry said after the game. “They won’t remember how many home runs Matt Wallner hit, they won’t remember how many wins Nick Sandlin had. Those numbers will fade. But the person you are, the teammate you are, the coach you are, how you care for people and how try to build people and mold people, that’s what they’ll remember the most. That’s a big part of who I am.”
As UT dogpiled on the USM mound following the final out, a crowd of 5,802 broke out in a “Thank you, 40” chant. Berry was on staff at USM for 23 seasons, helping the late Corky Palmer build a winning program in the 2000’s before doing the same for the last 14 years.
Berry’s teams have cultivated a culture of consistency, starting with a string of trips to regionals and now back-to-back hosts of a super.
His last weekend at The Pete made USM one of two schools, joining CWS-entrant Stanford, that hosted a Super Regional in each of the last two seasons.
“I think people realize Southern Miss baseball is really special,” Berry said.
The Hattiesburg Super was the final location to send an Omaha representative as it battled lengthy weather delays and an 18-hour suspension.
Southern Miss won the first contest, 5-3, in a game spanning two days. Tennessee erased a 4-0 deficit in the second game, scoring eight unanswered and forcing Monday action where the Vols sealed their fate.
Golden Eagle pitching coach Christian Ostrander will take over as USM’s next head coach. Ostrander will be just the fifth coach since 1959 and, as a sixth-year staff member, represents the tight-knit club of interconnected leaders that have build USM into the program it is.
“This program is about building good, strong young men and sending them out into the community,” senior captain Danny Lynch said. “You see it with Coach Berry, you saw it with Corky (Palmer) before him and Hill Denson before him. They’ve all built good, strong young men... That’s the biggest thing, how much you grow when you come to Southern Miss baseball. You grow as a person moreso than you grow as a player.”
Berry’s career was filled with highs, including multiple conference tournament titles, and season-ending disappointments. As he steps out from under the towering pines one last time, Berry chooses to have a selective memory.
“I will spend the rest of my time remembering and thinking about the good times,” Berry said. “The good wins. I’m not going to be thinking about the disappointing ones, in all honesty. I’ve been very blessed to be surrounded by very good coaches, very good players, great administration. Those are things that I’ll remember.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2023 at 11:56 PM.
