Southern Miss and Coastal Carolina won again Saturday, setting up a blockbuster Sun Belt Tournament final between the two Sunday.
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Stage set for clash of the Sun Belt titans
Coastal Carolina during the Sun Belt Baseball Championships at Riverwalk Stadium on May 24, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference)
by:
JOE HEALYMay 24, 2025
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — With a 2-1 win for Southern Miss over Troy and a 6-1 win for Coastal Carolina over Marshall, a blockbuster of a Sun Belt Tournament title game is set for Sunday.
Throughout most of the season, it has been clear that these were the two best teams in the conference and because of the unbalanced nature of schedules in the league, we were robbed of seeing that matchup in the regular season.
It also happens to be a matchup between two of the hottest teams in the country. Northeastern currently paces college baseball with a 27-game winning streak, but Southern Miss is second nationally with 18 wins in a row, followed closely behind by Coastal Carolina at 17 straight wins.
Anyone who has watched these teams over the course of the season is going to be glued to the final on Sunday, even those who have competed with these teams recently.
“That’s going to be a war tomorrow,” said Marshall head coach Greg Beals of the title game. “I’d rather be playing than watching, but I’m going to enjoy watching that game as well to see those two teams get at it.”
Along the way on Saturday, both teams showed why they are in the position they’re in, both in terms of being in the tournament title game and in terms of being a lock to host in the case of Coastal and in the mix to host in the case of USM.
Though its lineup was largely stifled by an excellent start from Troy’s Chase Nelson, who had thrown all of 10.2 innings going into the game, and good relief work from Jay Dill, Southern Miss pitched its way to victory.
Grayden Harris got the start and gave up one run in 3.1 innings. Workhorse lefthander Kros Sivley followed and tossed 3.2 scoreless frames. And closer Colby Allen came on and got the final six outs without incident. They weren’t perfect, as Troy had nine hits, but that trio always managed to work around runners, leading to the Trojans stranding 12 when it was all said and done.
Southern Miss RHP Colby Allen vs. Coastal Carolina the Sun Belt Baseball Championships at Riverwalk Stadium on May 24, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference)
“It was just kind of a pitchers’ duel all the way through,” said Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander. “(I’m) proud of the fact that Grayden Harris got us out of the gate and Kros bridging it to Colby, those middle innings were crucial and kept zeroes on the board and Colby finished it out.”
Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina handed the ball to another one of its trio of co-aces in the rotation, in this case Sun Belt pitcher of the year Jacob Morrison.
He struggled with command early on, walking a batter and uncorking a wild pitch that helped lead to a Marshall run in the first inning, but after that he settled in nicely.
“(I) just listened to my coaches when I got back to the dugout,” Morrison said of what he did after the first inning to settle in. “Coach (Matt) Williams usually has something for me and then I go back out there and really focus on that in my warmup pitches and then go back to it.”
He ended his day having thrown seven innings, giving up five hits and one run, after which he handed the ball off to reliever Matthew Potok, who went six up and six down to put away the Thundering Herd, who fought valiantly all week but simply looked out of gas on Saturday.
“Morrison and all the pitchers, we love playing behind them,” said Coastal Carolina second baseman Blake Barthol. “They throw strikes and we’ll play defense.”
And offensively, the Chanticleers weren’t overwhelming, but were very impressive when it comes to the way they played add-on all game long and manufactured runs.
They scored in five separate innings and of the six runs, two came on a two-run home run for Barthol but two came home on sacrifice flies, one scored on a fielder’s choice and one scored on a single. Coastal also laid down two sacrifice bunts and stole three bases to keep things moving along.
Coastal Carolina 2B Blake Barthol in a HR trot vs. Marshall during the Sun Belt Baseball Championships at Riverwalk Stadium on May 24, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference)
It was a pretty complete all-around performance in what has been a week of them for both the Chanticleers and the Golden Eagles.
One can’t help but think that the kind of showcase the Sun Belt will have on Sunday might also be good for a third potential postseason team in the conference, Troy. If those two teams are worthy of being hosts, surely a team that was the clear third-best team in that league should be in line to get an at-large bid, the thinking would go.
After the Trojans’ loss to USM Saturday morning, their fourth in the last 10 days to the Golden Eagles, they find themselves sitting precariously on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Troy head coach Skylar Meade made the case for his team in his postgame press conference Saturday, but the other coaches made just as strong a case.
“Coach Meade and his staff, they’re great coaches and they’ve put together a really good team,” Ostrander said. “That team in a regional will be very dangerous and I think their body of work, what they’ve done, is deserving. I think this league deserves three in at least, so hopefully they get that opportunity.”
The Sun Belt isn’t going to have four teams in a regional like it has in each of the last two seasons, but in its title game matchup, it has two teams that are in position to play postseason baseball at home next weekend and that have very real College World Series aspirations.
