Southern Miss baseball coach challenges team after Ole Miss loss: 'Time to take next step'
HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss pitching coach Christian Ostrander leaned on the cushioned black railing Sunday, the bill of his black cap pointed toward the ground for a few moments.
Infielders Will McGillis and Charlie Fischer lingered outside the dugout. Other Golden Eagles perched motionless on the steps, their eyes focused on the celebrating Ole Miss Rebels.
After two super regional games, the pain endured by all but one college baseball program across the country had come for the Golden Eagles, eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Ole Miss for the second year running.
“It’s going to take a couple of days just to let this kind of thing settle in, because it hurt,” USM coach Scott Berry said. “I could see the hurt in the guys’ faces. We had young men out there with tears coming down their faces because we worked so hard and it was a special year.”
RECAP: Why Southern Miss baseball's outstanding season came to an end vs. Ole Miss
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Southern Miss finished its final campaign in Conference USA with a regular-season title. It won a regional for just the second time and hosted a super regional at Pete Taylor Park for the first time.
The Golden Eagles concluded their season with 47 victories, tied for second-most in program history.
These are landmarks that a pair of defeats to the Rebels at the end of the season won’t tear down. Still, when the Ole Miss celebrations dialed down to a simmer and the Golden Eagles gathered as a group for the final time, Berry issued his team a challenge, just as he did last season when USM stumbled in a regional for the seventh time in a row.
“It’s time to take that next step, and that’s to Omaha,” Berry said.
Southern Miss’ starting pitching, dominant all season, stagnated somewhat in the Hattiesburg Super Regional, with Hurston Waldrep and Tanner Hall combining to allow eight earned runs in 10⅓ innings pitched.
But the Golden Eagles’ lineup – the primary concern for this group coming into the super regionals – fell flat.
Southern Miss did not score in either of the two games against an Ole Miss staff that hadn't pitched a shutout all season – a feat more attributable to fully fledged listlessness than difficulty cashing in on opportunities.
The Golden Eagles mustered just seven combined hits across the two games. At one point, Southern Miss sent 16 batters to the plate without registering a baserunner against freshman Ole Miss lefthander Hunter Elliott, who pitched 7⅓ scoreless innings.
Southern Miss was similarly baffled by Dylan DeLucia, the Rebels’ Saturday starter.
Neither pitcher threw terribly hard, but their effectiveness couldn’t be questioned.
“It was just a timing problem,” Berry said. “They just kept us off-timing and did a good job of plussing and minusing. Last weekend we swung the bat pretty well; we scored runs. I just think sometimes you've got to tip your hat.
“There’s a lot of times that people have tipped their hats to our pitchers this year, in all honesty. I’ve seen them do that. Today I have to be that opposing coach that goes, ‘You know what, those were two pretty good arms that pitched.’”
There will be ample time to analyze and address the shortcomings when the Golden Eagles turn the page to 2023.
The next few days will be about coming to terms with the end, a process that got its painful start as Southern Miss watched the jubilant Rebel celebration from the third-base dugout.
It also will be about saying goodbye. Pitchers Drew Boyd and Hunter Riggins will move on, Berry said, as will fan-favorite outfielder Gabe Montenegro, his eligibility exhausted after six seasons on campus.
“I’m really honored that I was able to come to this program,” Montenegro said. “I’m just really grateful for coach Berry and the other coaches who gave me that chance. Even though this is the end, I know this program and I know these players, and they’re going to come back stronger next year.”
Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss baseball coach challenges team after super regional loss
