The Southern Miss baseball team is staying home to start the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA announced Sunday that Hattiesburg will be one of 16 Regional tournament sites. The 12th-ranked Golden Eagles (43-16) will serve as the host team for the third time in school history (2003, 2017), but it will be just the second time they’ve hosted as the No. 1 seed of the four-team tournament.
It wasn’t revealed Sunday which one of the 16 overall seeds Southern Miss will be. That will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday, along with the other three teams participating in the Hattiesburg Regional. Although it’s unlikely given their RPI standing, if the Golden Eagles are awarded a top 8 national seed, they would also earn the right to host a Super Regional for the first time in program history, should they advance past the Regional.
The Hattiesburg Regional will begin Friday. The full schedule will be announced Monday.
Southern Miss is coming off a 2-2 showing at this week’s Conference USA tournament, which was held at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg. Scott Berry’s team defeated UAB and FAU but lost to tournament runner-up UTSA twice, most recently on Saturday.
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The Golden Eagles, which set a school record with 15 consecutive wins in March and April this season, boast the second-best team ERA in the country (3.06) and the No. 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.52). Their 11.3 strikeouts per nine innings average is also second-best in the nation.
Ace right-hander Tanner Hall (8-2) has an ERA of 2.69, which ranks 51st in the country. Hall’s 11.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio is second-best of any pitcher in the nation.
Southern Miss’ offense ranks 114th with a team batting average of .283, while its 76 home runs this season are tied for 44th-most in the country. The Golden Eagles are led by Dustin Dickerson (.346), who is the only regular starter with a batting average over .300, and Christopher Sargent (20 home runs).
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at [email protected] or on Twitter @munzly.
