Southern Miss will begin its run in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, and one college baseball expert is predicting the Golden Eagles to make it to Omaha for the first time since 2009.
During his weekly update on SportsTalk Mississippi, Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball revealed a portion of his predictions for this year’s college world series.
“I’ve got four SEC teams getting to Omaha,” Rogers said without specifying which teams. “And by the way, I’ve got Southern Miss going to Omaha. Scott Berry’s just going to ride off in the sunset from Omaha.”
There are a couple of different factors that make Southern Miss one of the field’s most dangerous teams, according to Rogers. The first of which is a roster that has plenty of postseason experience, including a 2022 run that resulted in a regional win over LSU. The second is that the Golden Eagles have an older lineup highlighted by Danny Lynch, Slade Wilks, and Tanner Hall.
“What I really like about this team is they’ve been in this spot before. They’ve won a regional, and they had to beat one of the most storied programs in college baseball history to win the regional,” Rogers explained. “I think this year, they’ve kind of learned some of the lessons from that regional when they beat LSU.”
“This time of year, I look at teams that are older teams that have experience in this situation, teams that have guys that have had a ton of at-bats. When I look at Southern Miss, Danny Lynch – the most deceiving batting average in college baseball. He hits .250, but every single time they need a big hit, he gets it. Slade Wilks has had a big year. You know, Tanner Hall. I just think they have a lot of really solid experienced front-line guys.”
Southern Miss and outgoing coach Scott Berry will take on Samford in game one of the Auburn Regional on Friday at 1 p.m. CT. The full interview with Rogers, which also includes regional-by-regional analyses, can be found below.
