It was only four weeks ago that Southern Miss suffered an ugly run-rule loss to Georgia State.
Since then, the Golden Eagles have rattled off 12 straight victories. True to their recent form, Southern Miss came from behind, trailing by five runs, and pulled out a 9-6 win over Louisiana to secure its third straight series sweep on Sunday.
The recent turnaround is a testament to how the program has found a way in the last several years to play its best baseball in the second half of the season.
“I think the culture is so strong here,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “There is no other options. We talk about it all the time that we have a responsibility for all the great players and great coaches that were before us, and what they built here. We have to do our part, and I think they buy into it. They feel it. They are obviously good players. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it’s there.”
For context, in the previous two seasons, Southern Miss capped off the ’24 campaign by winning 10 of its last 11 and in ’23 won 15 of the last 16.
“It’s the Southern Miss way,” said catcher Tucker Stockman, who homered in the win. “There’s not a whole lot you can explain about it other than that it starts in the fall. You want to be playing your best baseball this time of the year. It sucks that you don’t start out as hot as we can, but you want to be playing your best baseball at the end of the year. You don’t want to be riding the rollercoaster like we were in the first half (of the season). There have been good leaders and good captains on every team I’ve been on.
“We didn’t hit the panic button after the run-rule. We just believe in each other."
Southern Miss has outscored opponents 98-42 in the current win streak. The Golden Eagles smashed four more home runs against Louisiana to put their season total at 87, which puts them just eight away from tying the program record.
However, on Sunday, Southern Miss (38-13, 21-7 SBC) struggled in the second inning after starting pitcher Grayden Harris surrendered five runs to Louisiana (25-27, 15-12).
“We are going to pick up every guy on the team,” Stockman said. “Grayden threw fine, in my opinion. Catching him, he looked good, but he had some stuff not go his way. We knew we were going to keep competing. They still had to get us out 24 more times, that’s what Coach Oz told us when he came to take Grayden out.”
However, the Golden Eagles responded with a solo home run by Joey Urban and Ozzie Pratt with a double, followed by a 2-run homer from Matthew Russo in the third, and then homers by Stockman and Nick Monistere.
“I think we are resilient,” said Monistere, who was a triple away from the cycle. “We are a really tough group, and a really close-knit group. That makes it easy to be tough because we want to do it for one another. We are doing it for the teammates sitting right next to you.”
The Cajuns got a run back in the fifth, but USM responded with two more runs in the sixth to secure the game and the series sweep.
The Golden Eagles will close the season against No. 19 Troy on the road. First pitch is on Thursday at 6 p.m.
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