Across all of Southern Miss sports, the Golden Eagles have dominated in home matches.
With baseball, softball, tennis and beach volleyball seasons fully underway, Southern Miss has earned a high number of wins when playing at home in Hattiesburg. Baseball and softball have combined for an 18-7 home record so far this season, men’s and women’s tennis combined for a 12-3 record as their season comes to a close, and beach volleyball won all four of their home games this season.
Softball pitcher Kayla Giardina said the motivation to succeed comes from the audience.
“Being able to look in the stands and see our fans cheering for us,” Giardina said. “It definitely gives us that extra motivation to finish the game stronger than as if we were away and getting cheered against rather than for.”
Tennis player Jose Murariu echoed this sentiment.
“You know, when we’re playing,” Murariu said. “The women’s team is coming over and cheering us. So we’re always just feeding off of each other’s energy, and honestly, it’s amazing. Like, we really need to have more of that for sure. and hopefully other sports can come and support us and we can go and support those sports as well because that’s going to make the difference not just for us, but for other sports and this entire community, this entire program.”
But Giardina also shared her own idea as to why softball has succeeded at home.
“I definitely think that just like waking up being able to be in our own bed, having our own routines, being able to go do what puts us in the right headspace for a game definitely affects the way that we perform on the field,” Giardina said. “As much as, like, we might not want to admit it. It definitely does.”
While tennis and beach volleyball’s home games are all completed, softball and baseball have home games until the end of the semester. Softball plays three more home games while baseball plays ten.
To learn more about dates and times for Southern Miss home games, visit www.southernmiss.com.
