On this week's episode of To The Top Talk, we recap the Golden Eagles' postseason in baseball and look ahead to the new year in Southern Miss Athletics!

Website with links to iTunes, Spotify and more- http://www.jamiearrington.net/tothetoptalk

We've had an absolute blast covering the Golden Eagles this year! Big things ahead! We are going to take a break but will definitely be back this August. We're making some really cool changes to the show. Stay tuned and SMTTT!

There used to be a charter service for fishing. Does anyone have his name and number.

Southern Miss went 14 - 8 in 2020 with the new coach. Southern Miss just finished the last game of the 2021 season and will be 22 - 31 overall, 4 - 16 in the conference, and 2 - 18 in the last 20 games. By local Hattiesburg media accounts, 9 players have quit during the season. Should the coach be allowed to return? Usually, if there are a lot of transition issues it happens in the first year a new coach is put into place. Maybe there were issues most of us did not know about in 2020 that were overshadowed by COVID? Should the AD read the new softball coach the riot act and let him know another season like this one and he will be fired?

3 months ago, Southern Miss sat at 4-5 after getting shutout 6-0 against Jacksonville State. The team looked green, lethargic, and frankly, non-competitive. There was real concern that the streak of 5 consecutive regional berths would be broken after such a dismal start.

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concerning the baseball program. We proved we can play with P5 programs & win & easily beat an OVC team. USM must find away to continue to make facility improvements. We can compete! The AD must get this done somehow & I think he will. Can't wait for next baseball season! Hopefully, club seating is coming soon. SMTTT & football season is just around the corner!

Gone?

This is good news for him however I was curious as to why he only pitched for 2.1 innings during the 2021 season.

Coach Will Hall the Southern Miss staff are planning for a big weekend in recruiting. Since the NCAA has allowed for visits and in home visits, the coaches have hit the ground running. BGN was able to get access to those who are visiting this weekend.

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He has not seen any playing time at Southern Miss and this is probably best for all parties involved.

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Nothing official, but this is looking to be true. Great thing for sure.

Heath,

Have you heard any rumblings of some of the non starters transferring out? Just curious if what I read on Eaglepost (yes, I know I should believe very little on there) has any legs. I don’t want to throw out names if it’s not true.

Also hear we are trying to recruit Montenegro s brother. Do you know anything about this?

Southern Miss baseball came up short again. What's the outlook for the program's future?​

Nick Suss
Mississippi Clarion Ledger









OXFORD — For the third time in five years, Southern Miss baseball came up short.
After navigating the losers bracket of the Oxford Regional with three straight elimination game wins, Southern Miss lost 12-9 to Ole Miss on Monday to end the Golden Eagles' season. It marked the third time in five seasons that Southern Miss was eliminated by an SEC foe in a regional final, joining losses to Mississippi State in 2017 and LSU in 2019.
There's no doubting Southern Miss' status as one of the top programs in college baseball. Discounting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Southern Miss has five-straight 40-win seasons. The Golden Eagles have been to 14 of the past 18 postseasons. Since 2000, Southern Miss is one of just 10 non-Power Five programs to host multiple NCAA regionals.

MOUND MAJORS:Pitching depth burns Ole Miss baseball again, keeps Southern Miss alive in Oxford Regional
THE BIG WIN:Southern Miss baseball beats Florida State 7-4, advances to Oxford Regional final vs. Ole Miss
That said, Southern Miss hasn't won a postseason tournament since the super regional in 2009, and the Golden Eagles' regional win in 2009 is also the only regional win in school history.

Think about that stat about consecutive 40-win seasons again. It's a claim only one other college baseball program can make. That other program is Dallas Baptist, a team that won its regional as a No. 3 seed this weekend, marking the second time it won a regional since 2011.
There's no shame in coming up three runs short in what might've been the most competitive regional in the country. Southern Miss proved it belongs in those type of environments by beating Florida State and Ole Miss and nearly clawing back from a nine-run deficit to upset the Rebels to earn that coveted spot in a super regional.




That doesn't change the fact that Southern Miss came up short like it did in 2017 and 2019. Nor the fact that Southern Miss failed to make regional finals in 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2018.
Winning in the postseason is hard. Florida State, who USM eliminated Monday, has been to the postseason 43 years in a row and hasn't won a College World Series.

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Getting to the postseason is an achievement. Winning there is a goal.
So how is Southern Miss set up to do that next season? Pretty well. Redshirt senior aces Hunter Stanley and Walker Powell are on the way out. That will hurt. No team wants to lose its two best starting pitchers, particularly not when those two pitchers were arguably the two best in their conference.
But beyond Powell and Stanley, there isn't much else Southern Miss is at risk of losing, sans transfers. Gabe Montenegro will have to make a choice about whether he wants to come back, but beyond him, Southern Miss should retain its whole lineup. Starting pitchers Drew Boyd and Ben Ethridge should be back too, as might relief ace Ryan Och.
For a team that achieved as much as it did, Southern Miss was surprisingly young, especially offensively. The Golden Eagles will have the returning talent to build on that success in 2022, pending the ability to replace Stanley and Powell.
Again, there's no reason not to have a positive outlook about the future of Southern Miss baseball. But success moves the yardsticks on expectation.
The expectation for Southern Miss should no longer be to get to regionals. If this program wants to take a step forward, it's going to have to do something it hasn't done in 12 seasons and win a postseason series.
Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.

And I think those silly announcers hit on it and it’s been discussed on here. We have many relievers that really don’t have that many innings. The 4 game series this season helped with that by having the 7 inning doubleheaders and starters going deep into the games. I really wasn’t familiar much with Hall.

I think it was good Coach Hall tried to give everybody a chance in the spring. From everything I've heard it is good riddance to Tre Johnson. I am not happy it did not work out with Jacques Turner. I wish Turner well. Is there anybody else that was with the program this spring that has left?

We proved this weekend we can play with anyone in the country and no lead is ever safe when we are down. We have a good young team that if some key players come back due to COVID this team could be dangerous next year.

But to take the next step, our bullpen and players need to take it up a notch and win more of these mid week games. “It seems” we don’t put as much effort into it be because the weekend series are the spotlight and important. However if you look back at some of those mid week games in the past, just winning half the games we loss, means this tourney would have been played in Hattiesburg instead.
Trimble, is beginning to remind me of Anthony Rendon and Hall needs to be a weekend starter.

What seniors can come back next year if they want?

Nuf said.