Southern Miss clinched the Sun Belt regular-season title after sweeping Georgia Southern and benefitting from Coastal Carolina’s series loss to Louisiana, the Sun Belt standings show. The Golden Eagles are 40-14 overall and 22-8 in conference play, according to the school.
The sweep came by scores of 14-3, 10-1 and 11-0 (8), with senior Matthew Russo hitting a three-run homer in Saturday’s finale, the school reported. Southern Miss totaled eight home runs in the series, with Drey Barrett and Seth Smith each hitting two, and the pitching staff allowed just two earned runs across the three games, the team said. Winning pitchers were Grayden Harris (8-1), Camden Clark (8-0) and Camden Sunstrom (6-3).
Southern Miss’ 40 wins mark the program’s 10th consecutive full season with at least 40 victories, the school said, a streak it noted is the longest in Division I baseball, excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
No. 13 Mississippi State (39-16, 16-14 SEC) lost two of three at No. 10 Texas A&M in College Station after winning the opener 18-11, according to game results. No. 15 Ole Miss (36-20, 15-15) dropped two of three at No. 18 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, losing 5-4 in the opener, winning 9-0 in game two, and falling 6-2 in the rubber match, the school reported.
Conference tournaments begin next week. Southern Miss will be the No. 1 seed in the Sun Belt tournament in Montgomery, Ala., and is scheduled to play Wednesday at 4 p.m., the league said. Ole Miss and Mississippi State will play in the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala.; Ole Miss is the No. 9 seed and opens against No. 16 Missouri on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., with the winner slated to meet No. 8 Mississippi State on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., the conference announced. All three programs are expected to receive NCAA regional berths, the schools said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
