Southern Miss baseball continued its strong early season run this week, off to the best start in the Ostrander era at 14-2. They are ranked No. 7 in D1baseball.com, No. 10 in Baseball America, No. 6 in Perfect Game and No. 6 in The Athletic.
Another weekend is in the books, so naturally it’s time for my weekly report card for the Golden Eagles after a 4-1 week. Southern Miss beat No. 4 Mississippi State in a thriller on Tuesday night, before dropping a stunning home loss to Nicholls. They bounced back this weekend and earned the sweep of North Alabama.
This week, the starting pitching shined on the report card while other area prevented this from being a perfect week.
Southern Miss struggled with situational hitting at times, committed a few too many errors and played sloppy defense as time.
As always, these grades are tough because Southern Miss has set a high standard.
With that in mind, here’s this week’s Southern Miss baseball report card.
Starting pitching – A+
Editor’s Note: I included Thomas Crabtree in the grade for the starting pitching but did not include Dylan Causey (who started the Mississippi State game) because of the one inning approach, but Crabtree was extended so that will be my philosophy moving forward in the grades.
The Golden Eagle’s starting pitching was the defining strength of the week.
Across the four different games, Southern Miss starters consistently gave the team a chance to win, particularly during the weekend sweep of North Alabama. All Christian Ostrander asks of them is give them a chance to win, and all four of them did their job.
Starting on Wednesday night with Thomas Crabtree earning the start against Nicholls. Crabtree worked 4.1 innings and struck out a career high eight batters while allowing three earned runs. He ended up getting the loss, but the loss was not on him. It was on the bats that night (more on that later), I thought he was exceptional that evening. In fact, he is going against Ole Miss in the midweek this week.
Colby Allen earned his first win of the season on Friday night and tied his career high in total pitches. The right-hander worked six innings and allowed three runs, only two earned, while scattering six hits and striking out five. Allen didn’t completely overpower hitters, but he attacked the strike zone and limited damage when North Alabama threatened.
Arguably, he should have gotten out of that game with 1 ER since two came across in the second inning when Davis Gillespie whiffed on a ball in right field that was a routine fly ball.
Saturday belonged to Grayden Harris.
Harris delivered the most dominant performance of the week, striking out a career-high 13 batters across seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits. He consistently attacked hitters and generated swing and miss throughout the afternoon, producing one of the most impressive outings by a Southern Miss pitcher this season.
McCarty English finally had things go his way on Sunday.
English retired the first 10 batters he faced and finished the outing with five strikeouts and one walk to go along with three hits surrendered to get the win and improve to 1-0. North Alabama could not generate any offense off his fastball and changeup that he was finally locating and spotting in the strike zone.
That was the key difference for all the starting pitchers, the fact that they were all able to throw strikes on a consistent level to not drive up their pitch counts and get extended.
When the week was complete, Southern Miss starters and extended starters had combined for:
22⅓ innings
6 earned runs
2.42 ERA
31 strikeouts
That level of performance, particularly from Allen and English over the weekend is very encouraging for Southern Miss fans. If the starting pitching can be that good, and the bullpen has already shown it’s level of lethal ability…watch out.
Bullpen – A
The Southern Miss bullpen had another solid week, as they roll right along to mirroring that 2022 staff.
Across five games this week, the bullpen combined for nearly 20 innings of work and kept opponents from generating late momentum.
The freshman pitchers were impressive yet again. This time against No. 4 Mississippi State, where they didn’t allow an earned run to that great offense. Bruce Littleton was impressive in his two innings this week, racking up four strikeouts.
Dylan Causey and KL Farr were electric once again and provided key inning in relief roles.
Here are the numbers for the week for the bullpen.
Weekly bullpen totals - 19.2 IP, 9 ER, 20 K, 4.12 ERA
Those look a little higher than normal and you would be correct. Six of the nine earned runs over the week came in the Misssisippi State game. Outside of that game, the bullpen allowed just three earned runs across 10.2 IP.
Josh Och impressed once again with 3.2 IP and no earned runs, Camden Clark slammed the door against the heart of the Bulldog order. Camden Sunstrom pitched important relief to keep Nicholls game close.
Overall, it was another impressive week for a relief unit that continues to develop early in the season.
Offense / Defense – C
Arguably the reason for a loss this week, the offense had some nice explosive moments during the week but also experienced stretched where it struggled to consistently generate runs and pressure on opposing pitchers.
Southern Miss scored 27 runs across five games, which looks solid on paper. But that production came with a fair amount of inconsistency.
The Golden Eagles managed just two runs in the loss to Nicholls and struggled at times with situational hitting during the week.
There were still several strong individual performances.
Ben Higdon had the best weeks with seven hits in 17 at-bats. Kyle Morrison also had a big week, including a five-RBI performance against North Alabama.
Drey Barrett and Matthew Russo also contributed key hits throughout the week, helping Southern Miss generate offense during its weekend sweep.
Still, the lineup left opportunities on the table in several games.
Southern Miss struggled with runners in scoring position during the midweek contests and at times relied on big innings rather than consistent offensive pressure.
The Golden Eagles have plenty of power and experience in the lineup, but the next step will be finding more consistency from top to bottom in the order.
Defense was the most uneven part of the Golden’s Eagles’ week. Southern Miss committed five errors in five games, giving opponents extra opportunities in several contests.
A couple of those miscues came in the midweek loss to Nicholls, where defensive mistakes helped extend innings and put additional pressure on the pitching staff.
In the North Alabama series, Southern Miss failed to make a couple of routine plays, which extended innings. Against Mississippi State, Higdon dropped a third out in right field that plated two Bulldogs runs…just a misjudged ball.
Now, none of the defensive issues were catastrophic, but they were noticeable enough to stand out during an otherwise strong week.
Let’s just say the defense doesn’t worry me…. yet.
Overall – B+
This would have been nothing short of an A week if Southern Miss went 5-0. But a real bad loss to Nicholls puts it in the B range, with the win over Mississippi State carrying the day.
The starting pitching was elite, the bullpen provided plenty of quality innings and the offense produced enough to secure four victories.
At the same time, the week also highlighted a few areas where the Golden Eagles can improve as the season progresses.
Situational hitting needs to become more consistent, defensive mistakes need to be reduced and the bullpen will continue to be tested during midweek-heavy schedules.
If the Golden Eagles can clean up a few of those smaller issues, 4-0 weeks will become the norm as the season moves forward.
