Road that led Southern Miss baseball to showdown with Ole Miss started with Scott Berry — 32 years ago

HATTIESBURG — Scott Berry didn't know how much longer he could afford to stay around the game he loved.

In his time away from the ballpark at Southwest Missouri State in the late 1980s, Berry worked as a roofer. He drove routes for Coca-Cola. He arranged liquor displays. He gave hitting lessons and went off to help out in the Jayhawk Collegiate League in the summers, all in an effort to finance a fledgling coaching career that wasn't paying the bills.

“I was really on my last leg," Berry said. "I was really fixing to have to do something else. Things just weren’t moving in that direction."

Then, Berry got the call he'd been waiting for. Mississippi beckoned.

Nearly 32 years after he arrived at Meridian Community College as an assistant, Berry has evolved from a Missouri transplant into Southern Miss' all-time winningest coach. He's preparing to lead Southern Miss baseball into a landmark NCAA Tournament super regional against Ole Miss, marking the first time two programs from this baseball-mad state have collided in the supers.

An avid outdoorsman, Berry works out of an office with four mounted deer heads spread out across the walls and shelves – all products of hunting expeditions in Mississippi, he says.

He coaches a roster that includes 17 players who went to high school in the state. Berry derives a sense of gratification not only from what this super regional means for his program, but also from its impact on the state he calls home.

"What I’m proud of is the national exposure it gives to the state of Mississippi and how strong college baseball is in a state that only has 3 million – or maybe a little less than 3 million – people," Berry said. "You know, you’ve got two programs that are two of the 16 left standing to get to Omaha."

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Over three decades before he beamed at the strength of college baseball in his adopted home state, Berry needed a break. He got it from Corky Palmer, then the coach at Meridian.

Palmer brought Berry in as an assistant coach ahead of the 1991 season, convinced by then-Southern Miss coach Hill Denson and staffers Charlie Gray and Doug Lambeth to overlook Berry's lack of ties to the region.

"Charlie – and I maybe helped a little bit – talked Corky into at least giving an interview to Scott," Denson said. "So he brought him down and he liked him and the rest is history."

Palmer's decision at Meridian began a chain reaction that built the Southern Miss baseball program into what it is today. Palmer left the head coaching job at Meridian to join Denson's staff in 1997, clearing the way for Berry's first head coaching role.

The same cycle repeated itself years later. Palmer became the coach at Southern Miss in 1998, adding Berry to his staff in 2001. When Palmer retired in 2009, Berry took over.

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Now, the Golden Eagles are an annual presence in the NCAA regionals, pushing for more.

"It takes a long time to build a tradition," Denson said. "You can't build a tradition in five or 10 years, it's gotta be over 30 or 40 years."

Berry said his adjustment to life in Mississippi was quick. He joked that he learned more about the state's geography in his first two years at Meridian than he did about Missouri's in 28 years there.

Perhaps that's because relationship building comes naturally to Berry. While at Meridian, he traveled the state forming connections both in and out of baseball that still bolster the Southern Miss program.

"Those connections outside of baseball, those are important," Berry said. "You wouldn’t believe how many times those relationships outside of baseball connect you to relationships inside baseball."

Berry said he works constantly to let people know that he needs them, not the other way around.

Using that approach throughout his 32 years in Mississippi, Berry’s name carries weight with prospects from the area. Thanks to Berry and the efforts of Denson and Palmer, the Southern Miss baseball brand does, too.

When Berry and the Golden Eagles call, it means something to the prospect on the receiving end.

"I say all the time, he's one of the best people I've ever met," said catcher Blake Johnson, a Gulfport native and Jones College transfer. "Always heard that about him. So, when I finally did get the call, it was a no-brainer."

That reputation, Berry said, is a byproduct of the tradition he, Palmer and Denson worked so hard to build. Southern Miss is loaded with players who grew up caring about the Golden Eagles – and, no doubt, know the reputation of the man who leads them, over three decades after a move to Mississippi saved his coaching career.

"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," Berry said. "Certainly, being those in-state guys, they’re attracted to that because they’re more familiar with it."

Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball showdown with Ole Miss started with Scott Berry