It's been said in several places after Southern Miss swept Charlotte to go 4-0 in another big week, but it bears repeating: it takes a really good baseball team to win all four of those games away from home.
Three of the wins (Tuesday vs. OM, Friday and Sunday at Charlotte) were what I would characterize as ugly wins. The Ole Miss win not quite as much, but the Golden Eagles didn't have their best in Pearl either (walking 6, nearly collapsing late). Plus, most of the weekend there was no consistent production at the plate against the 49ers.
But they found a way. Clutch hitting came through in big moments as Danny Lynch, Chris Sargent, and Will McGillis all stepped up late throughout the week. Then, even after shaky starts to innings late in multiple games, an arm came out of the pen and did his job to secure wins. Landon Harper, Garrett Ramsey, Isaiah Rhodes, and Dalton Rogers all played a big part.
To me, that's what makes this team a good one with the potential to be great. There's not one or two bats or one or two arms you have to rely on to get you wins.
In any given game, there are nine capable bats in the lineup to come through in big spots, and the deepest bullpen I've ever seen at Southern Miss to back it up. Not to mention the starting rotation that has laid the foundation in many of these games and will almost always keep you in it.
Time and again someone has picked up the slack when all the cylinders weren't firing. As the saying goes, the most important man in the world is the next man - Southern Miss has plenty of 'em.
These coming weeks will be a different sort of test for Southern Miss, facing a scrappy (and very capable) Southeastern Louisiana club in the midweek to start it off tomorrow night. Plus, a pair of teams you've already beaten in UNO and Tulane next week.
The next two weekends will set Southern Miss against two of the bottom C-USA clubs in FIU and Rice.
This is exactly the portion of the schedule where average to good teams would lose focus and drop a few games they aren't supposed to.
The trudge through a grinding 2022 schedule continues - we'll get an even better look at how good this team is and can be.
Halfway through the schedule, Scott Berry's boys have met the challenge.
