Were4usm described me as an extraordinary predictor. Let us see how I stand. After seeing the current basketball play a few games, I gave my regular season prediction, which was 12-13 (I accidentally omitted one game). There were 26 games left on my prediction on November 21st, and I accounted for only 25 games. We still have one game left against Louisiana on Saturday. As of now, we are 14-11. Let's see how Saturday's game turns out for my final standing.

Last year, if you remember, after the Vanderbilt game, I predicted we would only lose five games the rest of the season. It ended up losing 6 in the regular season. I was off by one game.

Midwest Connection: Early-season impressions​

ANALYSIS Patrick Ebert and Burke Granger - February 28, 2024


Two weeks into the 2024 season, it’s time to take a look at a small handful of Midwest teams making an impression early in the year. This list includes No. 20 Indiana, who entered the D1Baseball Top 25 after the first weekend of play,
and 7-0 Indiana State, who has an opportunity to join the Hoosiers among the ranked teams with a key non-conference series at Southern Miss ahead of them.

​

Indiana State​

Indiana State followed up opening weekend wins against Louisville, Connecticut and South Florida with another unbeaten weekend. This time, the Sycamores beat Florida Gulf Coast, Michigan State and then Marshall twice to improve to 7-0. Indiana state is one of just 16 undefeated programs heading into week three and their team ERA of 2.08 ranks seventh nationally. These accolades combined with the high regard that Mitch Hannahs has earned for this program year in and year out have the Sycamores knocking on the door of the Top 25.

Indiana State’s Jacob Pruitt
While the Sycamores have been quite democratic on the mound, as seven different pitchers accounted for the team’s seven wins, but there have been standouts. Sophomore righthander Jacob Pruitt has been superlative, going 1-0, 0.77 with 20 strikeouts compared to just three walks in 11.2 innings. Indiana transfer Luke Hayden was a highly touted prep arm who struggled during his time in Bloomington. He’s been terrific for his new team, allowing no earned runs over two starts while striking out a batter an inning. Most importantly, he’s only walked three in 10.2 innings thus far after having trouble throwing trikes consistently for the Hoosiers. Jared Spencer has been his usual dominant self in the back end, allowing just one hit over three scoreless, walkless innings where he struck out five.

Parker Stinson homered twice over the weekend, boosting his slash line to .360/.469/.720 on the young season. He’s already posted three multi-hit games in seven tries this spring. Randal Diaz is sporting a .950 OPS after going 5-for-16 with a home run and four RBIs this weekend. Senior outfielder Adam Pottinger swung a hot stick over the weekend, going 4-for-14 with a pair of doubles and three runs scored.

*

Login to view embedded media
Yes, we will have reports from practice with Dima Mixon.

EagsBy10: Will USM ever get their bats going? Concerned going into the Indiana state series this weekend.
Kendall Rogers: I think if we’re sitting here a month, or two months, and Carson Paetow, Nick Monistere and Slade Wilks are all hitting .250 or below, I’d be the most surprised person in college baseball. Will USM turn into an offensive juggernaut? Probably not — but man, those three will get it going at some point. That will be a tough matchup going against ISU, which has been stellar on the bump with Jacob Pruitt and others leading the way.

Oxford Bald Eagle: What’s up boys. Been with y’all 7 years now. Live in LSU country, born and went to school in H’burg, work for a company outta Starkville, have a house in Oxford…I’ll be sending my resume. Anyhow, deepest pitching staff Southern Miss has ever had. We usually have 3-4 guys with “stuff” and a bunch of guys who can pitch. We are running out electricity every inning from the pen, starters are solid and Armistead is the best Sunday guy in the country. Can we hit enough to go to Nebraska?
Aaron Fitt: Hello sir, thank you for being a long-time reader! You sure do have some connections to some awesome college baseball hot beds. Anyway — totally agree that Southern Miss has a real pitching staff this year. I saw a bunch of those arms in the fall, and it was clear that this staff would be much, much deeper than last year’s — it just didn’t have Tanner Hall, but I was hopeful that Niko Mazza would be able to handle that Friday starter role, because he’s always had great stuff and he has continued to mature. Looks like he is doing his part so far. I agree with Kendall above — probably not going to be an offensive juggernaut, but I think the offense should be good enough to make Southerm Miss very dangerous behind that pitching staff. Absolutely capable of making an Omaha run if they peak at the right time, because they have the mound talent, and as I said earlier, high-end pitching is a separator.

Oss mentioned today to look for a bunch of arms tomorrow. I think it will be a Johnny Wholestaff type of night.

EAGLES!!!

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Nick, Carson, and Pratt were all hitless today. If they can overcome their issues we can get over the hump. I'm sorry to see Wilkes on the bench, but you have to hit the ball. Pitching struck out 17 today!!! Will Armistead did a great job in the Sunday starter role. It's good to see the new guys win a game.​

​

EAGLES!!!

Another busy weekend at Southern Miss!!!

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

nm

Please share your thoughts with me.

One thing that is obvious to me is that several of our players are not watching the ball all the way through. Watch carefully for yourself. Some players are missing the ball by 4 to 5 inches. It's a swing in the direction of the ball, not a focused swing at the ball. Watching the ball all the way is important.

A good example is follow through with a cast net. If you don't follow through all the way through behind your back, you get a lot of half open flops of the net, but the moment you start following through...all the way around, the net magically starts opening up all the way. When you start watching the ball until you hear the bat or leather pop you will start getting much closer with your bat. It's micro seconds that make a huge difference.

Some of our players are making good contact almost every time they come to the plate, but they seem to lack the ability to direct the ball to a place that will be effective. It's a small mental effort too change that. You have to think about where you want the ball to go, not just hit it. Concentrate on where you want it to go, your muscles will adjust.

Our coaches should teach these things, and we need to get to it immediately, or we can find ourselves with only 2-3 hits per game being the norm.

Once you learn to watch the ball, it's like swimming or riding a bike. You never forget, but you have to learn.

IT NEEDS TO CHANGE!!! IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.

GO EAGLES !!!

If the Sunbelt Conference interceded and made Domonique Davis sit out last Thursday night I wish they had made the Arkansas State player who started the big fight on February 15th sit out this game.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Let's get even better tomorrow. 4-3 Eagles


Eagles!!!