In a rare moment for any place, Southern Miss' two previous head baseball coaches sat and watched in the front row during the introduction of Christian Ostrander as the school's new leader for the program.
As former coaches Scott Berry and Hill Denson looked on during Ostrander's speech, the moment illustrated the culture of stability and success the program has experienced as Ostrander became just the fifth head baseball coach for the Golden Eagles' program since 1959.
"The culture here is outstanding," Ostrander said. "If you don't have a culture, that's one of the hardest things to obtain. The culture is set in. The culture is there. It's a great culture. It's an expectation to win. It's an expectation to dogpile. It's not just to make regionals but to host regionals.
"We will get to Omaha, and one day we will win that last game of the year. You have to believe it… It's not going to be easy. If you have been somewhere once, you can do it again. There is no doubt about it. It's not lip service. I believe it."
In his six seasons at Southern Miss, Ostrander received interest from several programs but opted to stay with the Golden Eagles because the notion of leading USM would be a 'dream job.'
"I knew what I wanted," Ostrander said. "I wasn't interested at going to be a pitching coach at the next level. I knew I wanted to be a head coach. If it was in the good Lord's plan, I might get the opportunity here."
"These six years went by in a heartbeat. I'm happy my family is happy. I was very glad that I chose patience because this ultimately was what I have been looking for in my career."
Recruiting Class
Ostrander said he doesn't expect the Southern Miss' roster to be finalized until about three weeks from now and that the program could add more players from the transfer portal.
"Our model is going to be just like it has been," Ostrander said. "We're going to recruit high school," Ostrander said. "I believe in getting young talent and developing them, letting them grow. We're obviously going to bring in junior college talent when we need it for specific things.
"There's another element of coaching in this new age called the portal. This program is not going to be built on that at all. It's not sustainable, in my opinion. I think it's about developing and investing in good, young talent and teaching them. That's how you get consistency. That's how you have the ability to have sustained success. Don't get me wrong, we will use the portal, and we have, but it'll be for specific things."
Southern Miss is expected to bring in 17 new players for the upcoming year, that includes 10 freshmen, five junior college players and at least two players from the transfer, which are BYU transfer Ozzie Pratt and Southeastern Louisiana transfer Andrew Landry.
Pratt, who is an Oxford native, posted a .305 batting average, belted 14 doubles and hit four home runs while starting at shortstop for the Cougars in 45 games. Landry, a senior right-hander, was a weekend starter that held a 4.21 ERA, struck out 49 and walked 27 in 12 starts last year.
"It's been a working progress," Ostrander said. "We have a strong group of high school players coming in like we will every year. We have some sprinkled in some junior college guys, and here lately, we have added some portal pieces. We are not done, but we are getting closer. We have a few irons in the fire. You don't know what that roster will look like until the draft is over.
"Truthfully, we won't know what that final roster will look like until about three weeks from now."
Staff Additions
During his ceremony, Ostrander announced the addition of Ladd Rhodes alongside Travis Creel, Ben Brewer, Keller Bradford and Todd Makovicka.
"Ladd is a guy that I know," Ostrander said. "He is a young man that I coached in high school, junior college and brought him along at Jones. Ladd is a winner and has high character.
"He is a guy that has been here. I'm very excited about having him."
Rhodes had played and coached for Ostrander at Jones College and was a volunteer assistant for Southern Miss in 2020. His most recent stint was at Nicholls State where he was the hitting and recruiting coordinator. This season, Rhodes helped engineer one of the Colonels' best seasons they finished and helped guide the program to its first-ever Southland regular season title in program history and first conference tournament title since 1998.
Carly Mauldin will also be a new name for the baseball program, but not for Southern Miss. Mauldin will take over as the director of baseball operations after previously working as an assistant coach with the Southern Miss women's soccer program and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC program.
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