It’s that time of the week again for the weekly Southern Miss report card, grading Southern Miss baseball’s performances every Monday.
This week, I am grading the Golden Eagles’ 14-4 win over Alabama at Pete Taylor Park and their three-game sweep of Louisiana Tech in Ruston.
As a reminder, these grades will feel tough, because Southern Miss is elite — and they should be graded on that scale.
With that in mind, here’s the third report card of 2026.
Starting pitching – A
I’m kind of tossing the midweek game aside when discussing starting pitching. While Causey did some good things, he was obviously on in for an inning, so I’m just going to slide him into the bullpen discussion.
Here are the starting pitching stats for all three starters this weekend in Ruston.
Colby Allen – 4.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB
Grayden Harris – 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 K, 3 BB
McCarty English – 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 K, 1 BB
Starting with Allen, I just feel that he hasn’t been as confident in his stuff as we have seen him in the past. He did not miss many barrels on Friday night and ended the night with just five strikeouts. He is having trouble locate that slider, and he’s not getting the swing and miss on it like we’ve seen in the past.
But he still gave Southern Miss almost five innings of work just allowing that one earned run. But he would tell you that he must be better if he wants to continue to start in the Friday role.
Harris on Saturday has just been electric the past two weeks. He tops his performance against Oregon State by going six innings against the Bulldogs and striking out five. His fastball/cutter has ridiculous movement and it’s real hard for hitters to see it. On top of that, he can throw that backdoor sweeper in at any juncture. He’s by far been the most electric arm that has started thus far.
English once again just got his pitch count too high to continue. I think I personally would have let him go another inning, but like Allen he wasn’t missing barrels. Gives up the two solo homers to the same batter, but other than that was fine against the rest of the lineup.
Ostrander has said that the perfect starting outing is six innings, just allowing one run. So far, he hasn’t gotten that from two of his weekend starters. I’m not sure if this will mean there might be a change coming to the rotation, but it’s noticeably the biggest question mark of the team currently.
Bullpen – A+
If there was a position group that you could had just about zero question marks so far, it would be the bullpen.
Let’s start with Tuesday’s game against Alabama.
The Golden Eagle’s ran out eight pitchers, three were true freshman and two had never been on a colligate mound before.
Southern Miss racked up 12 strikeouts and just five walks. They didn’t allow the Tide to even register a hit past the fourth inning.
During the Louisiana Tech series, Southern Miss bullpen arms didn’t allow a run the entire weekend against Louisiana Tech and just six hits.
Friday -
Sivley 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER
Och 2.2 IP, 0H, 0 ER
Saturday -
Meeks 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER
Sunday -
Sunstrom 3.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER
Sivley 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER
Clark 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER
The bullpen’s greatest strength right now isn’t just swing-and-miss stuff. It’s strike-throwing and virtually no free passes allowed.
Offense / Defense – A
Southern Miss scored 41 runs in four games.
The week started with a seven-run fourth inning against Alabama. Ben Higdon crushed a grand slam to flip that game. Kyle Morrison added one as well. The Golden Eagles drew nine walks and collected 13 hits in a 14-4 dismantling.
That momentum carried into Ruston.
Southern Miss hit .296 as a team against Louisiana Tech and launched five home runs in the series. Joey Urban and Davis Gillespie each hit .500 for the weekend, combining for 13 hits and 10 runs scored. Tucker Stockman and Morrison delivered in leverage moments. Matthew Russo added timely extra-base hits, including a homer in the finale.
Defensively, there were minor hiccups — two errors against Alabama and a couple early mistakes in Game 1 at Louisiana Tech, which is only reason this section isn’t getting an A+. Errors costs run, but so far it hasn’t cost them any games.
Overall – A+
A 14-4 win over Alabama is nothing to gloss over. That’s a good Crimson Tide team.
Then, the team went north and handled their business against a really good Louisiana Tech squad. In fact, they handled their business so professionally that the Lane Burroughs, head coach for Tech apologized to the fans after the final game of the series.
The Golden Eagles won in multiple ways this week. They hit for power. They hit for average. They worked counts and drew walks. They attacked the strike zone on the mound. They avoided big innings defensively, as they have done all season.
There are still areas to sharpen — there always are — which is why the scale remains demanding. But if you stack this week against the standard Southern Miss has set for itself, it clears it comfortably.
Now comes another measuring stick with No. 4 Mississippi State coming to Pete Taylor Park.
But based on this week?
Southern Miss looks less like a team riding momentum and more like one building something sustainable.
