It’s that time of the week again for my Southern Miss baseball report card, and this one might be the worst inked card of the year.
Despite going 2-2 on the week, the Golden Eagles were run-ruled in a top-12 matchup against Mississippi State in Starkville. They were fortunate to win the series against Appalachian State after a four-run eighth inning rally on Friday, then were overwhelmed on Saturday. On Sunday, after what head coach Christian Ostrander described as a “stern” talk, Southern Miss looked like itself again in a 13-4 win.
They now sit at 21-7, 5-4 in Sun Belt play.
Southern Miss continues to search for consistency, particularly at the plate, where production remains uneven and heavily dependent on a few big innings rather than sustained offensive pressure.
With that in mind, here are this week’s grades.
Starting Pitching — B-
It was another week with a reshuffled rotation against Appalachian State, with Southern Miss moving Camden Sunstrom into a weekend role and going with a TBA on Sunday instead of McCarty English.
Thomas Crabtree started both Tuesday at Mississippi State and Sunday’s rubber match. He has now started three of the last six games. Tuesday in Starkville was a disaster, as Crabtree recorded just one out and allowed three runs, putting Southern Miss in an early hole it never recovered from.
Outside of that, the starters were solid.
Grayden Harris was better in Friday’s opener, keeping Southern Miss within striking distance and giving the offense a chance late. Sunstrom turned in one of the best outings of the week Saturday, tossing a career-long five scoreless innings and matching a career high with eight strikeouts. He provided exactly what Southern Miss needed: length, command and a chance to win.
That game, of course, didn’t end in a win, but it wasn’t because of the starter.
Crabtree was serviceable Sunday, working 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and striking out four.
That’s why this grade lands here. The starters weren’t perfect, but they were solid, and they weren’t the reason Southern Miss struggled this week.
Bullpen — C
This is the lowest grade the bullpen has received all season.
At its best, it remains the strength of this team. That showed at times this week, particularly with Colby Allen and Camden Clark locking down key innings. But there were also stretches, especially Tuesday and Saturday, where the group struggled.
The staff totaled 34 innings, allowing 36 hits and 26 earned runs with 12 walks and 31 strikeouts. That’s a 6.88 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP.
The Mississippi State game inflates those numbers. Without it, Southern Miss allowed 14 earned runs with 26 strikeouts to nine walks over the weekend series, good for a 4.67 ERA and 1.15 WHIP.
Still, Saturday stands out
After Sunstrom exited with zero runs allowed, the bullpen gave up six runs in back-to-back innings, turning a winnable game into a loss. That simply can’t happen, and it’s something we hadn’t seen from this group.
That said, this remains the unit of least concern moving forward.
Lineup — D-
This remains the biggest problem.
The raw numbers don’t look terrible. Southern Miss hit .260 as a team across four games, and the 13-run outburst Sunday gives the appearance of an offense finding rhythm.
It hasn’t.
Take away the four-run eighth on Friday and the six-run second on Sunday, and the production drops significantly. Too often, this offense relies on bursts rather than building consistent pressure inning to inning.
The situational hitting tells the story.
Southern Miss went a combined 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the Appalachian State series. The opportunities were there, but they weren’t capitalized on. Against Mississippi State, it wasn’t competitive. Seven hits, zero walks and 12 strikeouts in a seven-inning game is empty offense. There was no pressure, no sustained traffic and no ability to shift momentum.
Currently, this offense ranks outside the top 150 nationally and must improve for Southern Miss to reach its goals.
Joey Urban and Matthew Russo both hit .357 on the week, while Kyle Morrison (.313) and Davis Gillespie (.267) also contributed. Outside of that group, production was limited. Seth Smith (.154) and Drey Barrett (.100) struggled, and the lineup lacked depth.
Perhaps a move in the order could help generate more traffic, but the larger issue remains.
When Southern Miss scores, it tends to come from the same few names. When those hitters go quiet, there is little consistent production elsewhere to compensate.
That’s reflected in a deeper metric.
Weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA) measures how many runs a hitter creates compared to an average player, with zero representing league average. Right now, Morrison (+14), Urban (+9) and Gillespie (+5) are the only hitters producing above average. Everyone else is at or below zero, including Barrett and Tucker Stockman at -6.
That means the majority of the lineup is producing less than an average hitter would in the same opportunities. When only three hitters are generating positive run value, it becomes difficult to sustain consistent offense.
For comparison, teams in the top 10 typically have five to nine hitters producing above average.
This group can improve — and historically does around this point in the season — but right now, it remains the biggest concern.
Overall — C-
This was not a good week of baseball.
Yes, Southern Miss won a series. Yes, it responded Sunday. And yes, there are positives for a team sitting at 21-7.
But this team is not playing complete baseball.
The offense is inconsistent. The bullpen has been good. And while the starting pitching has been steady, it hasn’t been dominant enough to cover when the bullpen falters.
Without Sunday’s response, this grade likely drops even further.
That performance mattered. It showed what this team looks like when it’s clicking.
But the key word is “when.”
Right now, it’s not happening often enough.
