It’s that time of the week again for the weekly Southern Miss report card, grading Southern Miss baseball’s weekly performances every Monday.
This week, I am grading the Southeastern Louisiana game and the Golden Eagles’ sweep of thw 2026 Round Rock Classic in Round Rock, Texas.
As a reminder, these grades will feel tough, because Southern Miss is elite and they should be graded accordingly to that scale.
With that in mind, here’s the second report card of 2026.
Starting Pitching – B+
After a struggle in opening weekend, the Southern Miss starting pitchers bounced back in a big way over the weekend at Round Rock Classic. But especially the first two on Friday and Saturday in Colby Allen and Grayden Harris.
Here are the final lines for each starting pitcher –
C. Allen – 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K on 87 pitches (ND)
G. Harris – 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K on 88 pitches (W)
M. English – 2.0 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K on 50 pitches
Allen had a fine outing on Friday against Purdue. He was commanding his fastball/slider combo much better than against UCSB and didn’t overcommit on the changeup. It was pretty evident that he was getting a little frustrated with Boilermaker batters not biting on his changeup, which is something that he will have to work on.
USM still needs him to go deeper than five innings on 87 pitches, but it was certainly a step in the right direction for Allen.
Harris might have had one of the best outings in his entire careers. He threw against Oregon State and was electric riding his fastball much more than the previous week against UCSB and threw in a little cutter that Beaver batters just could not figure out.
Harris collected eight strikeouts, which is a career high for him and surrendered just two earned runs, which really shouldn’t have been his fault since one reached on error with two outs.
His pitch count got a little high and Southern Miss went to the pen after five innings, so same as Allen, definite improvement, but does need to last a little longer. But that will come with time.
English is the only reason this group didn’t grade out with at least an A. While English didn’t allow a hit, he gave Baylor four free passes and was pulled after 50 pitches in just two innings. That’s a big no-no as a starting pitcher, and Ostrander went and got him after that.
English wasn’t necessarily throwing bad, I’m just not sure if he has that strikeout pitch yet. Felt like that that pitch was his fastball up, but he hasn’t been able to command his other stuff well enough to get batters to chase.
I’m pretty sure Ostrander will keep English as the Sunday guy for at least one more week, then he needs to consider a change if English continues to not deliver on Sunday’s.
Bullpen – A+
Absolutely, hands down the unit that won the week was the bullpen. It started on Tuesday night in Hammond with the 3-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana.
Southern Miss threw eight pitchers in the midweek contest against the Lions and walked just one a batter and struck out 12. Then, they top that in Round Rock with critical responses, in critical moments.
On Friday against Purdue, Kros Sivley came in to relieve Allen and didn’t look great and lasted just 14 pitches. Insert Josh Och, who got of bases loaded jam in the eighth to keep the game tied. Then Camden Clark came in and slammed the door behind Och.
On Saturday against Oregon State, after Harris shined to start the game for Southern Miss, Camden Sunstrom came in right behind him and delivered one of his best performances out of the pen as a Golden Eagle.
Sunstrom threw the final four innings, recording a career-high strikeouts with no walks on four hits, giving up just a lone unearned run. He was in total command of his fastball/slider combo that Oregon State just had no answers for.
He retired the final six batters he faced in the contest to earn his first career save.
On Sunday against Baylor, even though the strikezone was super tight and Southern Miss gave up a bunch of free passes, the bullpen still held Baylor to just one run despite 14 baserunners on the bases and just three hits.
Overall pitching numbers on the weekend….
Starters - 12.0 IP, 3 ER, ERA - 2.25, 11 H, 7 BB, 15 K
Bullpen - 15.0 IP, 3 ER, ERA -1.80, 14 H, 9 BB, 22 K
Lineup / Defense – B
The offense wasn’t great against Southeastern Louisiana during the midweek, but made up for it with an impressive showing at Round Rock.
Southern Miss hit .304 as a team with 31 hits and 19 runs against a strong field. Golden Eagles showed balance up and down the lineup, getting production from veterans and role players alike. Kyle Morrison and Seth Smith sparked the offense late in the weekend, while Matthew Russo and Joey Urban provided timely swings and extra-base impact. The approach was consistent with what Christian Ostrander wants — 20 walks in three games and constant pressure on opposing pitchers. There were still moments where Southern Miss stranded traffic (14 left on base Sunday), and the strikeout number ticked up at times, which keeps this from being an A. But hitting over .300 in a neutral-site tournament against quality arms is a strong statement.
Morrison had a productive weekend from the plate, sliding out of the one hole batting .500 over the weekend with five hits.
The story of the weekend was Smith with a .625 batting average and several walks. Russo and Urban did their thing each batting over .350 during the weekend, while Gillespie just a hair over .333.
Higdon continues to struggle but did collect a few hits with a .133 average over the weekend.
Overall – A+
The weekend sweep at Round Rock might be one of the biggest program sweeps ever. Southern Miss went and undoubtedly was the best team in the tournament and took control of each game early. It was impressive and anything other than a total A+ overall on the week would be selling them short.
Of course, there will always be things to improve upon…that’s baseball…but Southern Miss has the team that can play with anyone in the country…this weekend proved that.
