How Ole Miss baseball, Southern Miss built their super regional rosters — in polar opposite ways
OXFORD — Two teams that represent Mississippi very differently will fight for a spot in the College World Series this weekend.
No. 11 national seed Southern Miss (47-17) hosts Ole Miss baseball (35-22) in the Hattiesburg Super Regional beginning Saturday (3 p.m., ESPNU) at Pete Taylor Park. The in-state rivals share a home and a recruiting footprint, but Southern Miss relies much more heavily on in-state talent. More than half of Southern Miss' roster played high school baseball in Mississippi compared to less than 30% of Ole Miss' roster.
That discrepancy is evident on the field as well. This season, 19% of Ole Miss' hits and runs and 16% of its home runs come from Mississippi players. Meanwhile, 48% of Southern Miss' hits, 49% of its runs and 55% of its home runs came from Magnolia State kids.
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On the mound, Ole Miss collected 24% of its innings, 25% of its strikeouts and 12% of its wins and saves from Mississippians while in-state prospects logged 45% of Southern Miss' innings, 41% of its strikeouts and 59% of its wins and saves.
"A lot of our guys that we have grew up knowing about Southern Mississippi," Golden Eagles coach Scott Berry said. "Obviously, they know about the other programs as well, but we feel that we have established that tradition in baseball, that consistency that young men are looking for when they’re looking at a program that wins and develops players. Certainly, being those in-state guys, they’re attracted to that because they’re more familiar with it."
Recruiting footprints don't live and die by state lines. Ole Miss catcher Hayden Dunhurst is from Carriere, Mississippi. Rebels outfielder Hayden Leatherwood is from Collierville, Tennessee. But Leatherwood grew up 250 miles closer to Oxford than Dunhurst.
It's a little easier for the Rebels to recruit out-of-state prospects because the SEC is more of a name brand and Ole Miss has more resources. But that doesn't mean primarily recruiting out-of-state is the best practice. Last year's Mississippi State team won a national championship with half of its at-bats and one-third of its innings pitched coming from Mississippi players.
It also doesn't mean Ole Miss abandoned recruiting its home state. Some of its most important contributions down the stretch came from Mississippians. Dunhurst and designated hitter Kemp Alderman have 32 RBIs in the Rebels' last 15 games. Pitchers Hunter Elliott and Mason Nichols have a collective 2.87 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 31⅓ innings over that stretch.
Nichols, who grew up in the Jackson area, has a special connection to this series. His parents went to Southern Miss. His mom, Kimberly, played tennis there. Nichols is one of the kids Berry talked about who grew up knowing about Southern Miss. He just ended up preferring Oxford as a recruit.
Now his parents have traded in their black and gold for blue and red.
"That's long gone," Nichols said. "My mom jokes with me about it sometimes, but there's no question they're Rebels now."
That's the sort of thing that happens when in-state foes collide in the postseason. Allegiances are tested. Families and friendships get put on hold. Alderman said he's texted friends on Southern Miss about getting lunch before the series. But when the games start, a spot in the College World Series will be the only thing on Alderman's mind.
Either Ole Miss or Southern Miss will advance. That means a Mississippi school will participate in the College World Series for the seventh time in the last 12 postseasons. Rebels coach Mike Bianco has a theory for why this keeps happening.
"There's no doubt that people wear their allegiance of the school quite proudly," Bianco said. "Wherever you go, people announce themselves by their allegiance. I found that out like in my first day here 22 years ago. So when they're growing up with that type of allegiance to a university and all those universities are very good at baseball and they know it's important and this many people show up, I think it kind of lends itself to kids wanting to play at those universities."
Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss baseball roster, Southern Miss' differ in NCAA super regional
