Southern Miss set to compete in the Auburn Regional

Southern Miss baseball’s season will continue in Auburn, Alabama, at the Auburn NCAA regional. Southern Miss is competing in an Auburn Regional for the second time in its program history, with the only other appearance in 2010, head coach Scott Berry’s first season. At 41-17 and champions of the Sun Belt Conference, the Golden Eagles enter the tournament as a strong two-seed.

“Super excited about the challenge. It’s a really good regional, with all four teams that are in it are deserving where they are at this point in the season. We are excited about the opportunity to go over to Auburn, I think it’s close enough for our fans to be able to travel, which I know they will. Just like they did to Montgomery in that tournament.” Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry said.

In their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament, Southern Miss (41-17), the No. 2 seed in the regional, will take on the No. 3 seed Samford (36-23) in the first game of the double-elimination regional format. Auburn (37-21-1), the No. 1 seed in the regional, will take on the No. 4 seed Penn (32-14) in the nightcap game of the first round.

“I’m really excited. We wanted to keep playing this year and this is a really good opportunity to go play some really good teams in a regional. It’s kind of fun to go somewhere else. I’ve never played at Auburn before, and we are just really excited.” Southern Miss RHP Tanner Hall said.

Last season, Southern Miss won their first NCAA Regional since 2009 by defeating LSU. The Golden Eagles will refer to that experience heading into this year’s regional.

“It helps a lot. My freshman year when we didn’t get out of a regional, I really saw how hard it was to get out. It’s not as easy as it seems especially if you drop a game, because you have to extend and you lose pitching and stuff like that. It really showed that it’s possible, and if you just go out and compete your going to find a way to win.” Hall said.

Winning two regionals two years in a row would be something this program has never accomplished. What an accomplishment that would be for Berry’s legacy and the overall tradition of Southern Miss baseball.

“We all talk about the tradition at Southern Miss in baseball, and winning championships….as I listened to some of those team that were announced that is was their first time they had been in in fifteen years and all of that, those teams are trying to get tradition. But they have to be consistent, and that’s what our program has been able to be and that’s consistent which has built our tradition. It’s no different with these guys who have carried us this year.” Berry said.

Southern Miss will look to continue that tradition at the plains in Auburn Friday afternoon.