The No. 16-ranked Southern Miss baseball team will begin its stint in the Sun Belt Conference tournament on Wednesday with hopes of securing a spot as a regional host come June.
According to Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball, the Golden Eagles, who have won 14 of their last 15 games, need to add a few more wins and they should have a good enough resume for the committee to choose Hattiesburg as a host site.
“If they go on a run in the conference tournament, they’re going to be very, very difficult to deny,” Rogers said on SportsTalk Mississippi. “Let’s say they got to the championship game, I think they should be hosting.”
While Southern Miss has spent most of the season as a projected two-seed for the Field of 64 – currently placed in the Tuscaloosa regional – Rogers said the Golden Eagles’ numbers have them trending towards jumping up in the field.
“I think when you look at this team overall, yeah, the RPI is sitting at 28, but they’ve got pretty decent metrics,” Rogers explained. “They have a winning record on the road. Their top-100 record is solid. They finished a game behind Coastal Carolina, who’s a slam dunk top six team.”
Southern Miss (37-16, 22-8 Sun Belt) will take on James Madison (31-23, 15-13) at 12:30 CT. The full bracket can be viewed here.
