Southern Miss Baseball recently announced the full 55-game regular season schedule in head coach Christian Ostranders’ first stint with the program.
The Golden Eagles will enjoy 31 home games throughout the season, including 11 matchups against NCAA tournament teams from a year ago. In all 17 of the 55 games, Southern Miss was matched against an NCAA tournament team from last season.
The Golden Eagles are coming off a 46-20 record and are the defending Sun Belt tournament champions. The Golden Eagles reached an NCAA Super Regional for just the third time in program history and the second season in a row.
They lost to the Tennessee Volunteers in a winner-take match to attend the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Last season, Southern Miss boasted one of the most demanding schedules in the country, which is a good reason their RPI stayed as high as it did for most of the season. It also explained the early growing pains that USM had earlier in the season.
This year, Southern Miss will have to deal with a tough non-conference schedule that starts at the Pete on Feb. 16 against Marist in a three-game series. Then, they will play a home non-conference midweek against Air Force on Feb. 19.
Six teams on this year’s slate ended their previous season ranked in the Top 50 in the final NCAA RPI. An additional five finished in the Top 100.
Those top 50 schools include Indiana State (No. 9), Alabama (No. 11), Coastal Carolina (No. 18), Troy (No. 39), Mississippi State (No. 46) and Louisiana (No. 50). Rounding out the Top 100 opponents are No. 58 Texas State, No. 82 Missouri State, No. 86 Ole Miss, No. 95 New Orleans, and No. 99 Georgia State.
Southern Miss will play at New Orleans on Feb. 21 before welcoming Missouri State for a three-game series. Then, they will return to Biloxi at MGM Park for the first time since 2019 to play Nicholls on Feb. 27.
Then, Southern Miss plays arguably their toughest non-conference opponent at home in Indiana State with a three-game set on March 1-3. The Cyclones finished last year with an RPI ranking of nine and went to the school’s first-ever Super Regional. It doesn’t get easier after that series for the Golden Eagles as Mississippi State awaits them in Trustmark Park on March 5.
Then USM heads to Ruston for a road series at Louisiana Tech on March 8-10.
Southern Miss entertains Alabama on March 12 at the Pete before opening up Sun Belt play against Marshall in Hattiesburg March 15-17.
Southern Miss draws Troy (March 28-30), ULM (April 19-21), Coastal Carolina (May 3-5), and Texas State (May 16-18) at home in the Sun Belt. And they have road contests with Georgia Southern (March 22-24), South Alabama (April 5-7), Georgia State (April 12-14), Louisiana (April 26-28) and Arkansas State (May 10-12).
Throughout those weeks, they entertain many midweek non-conference foes, highlighted by two matchups with Ole Miss, including one at the Pete on May 14.
The Sun Belt Conference tournament will again be held in Montgomery at Riverwalk Stadium, the home of the Montgomery Biscuits.
The season ticket renewal process will begin on Nov. 15.
