Will Southern Miss baseball win its NCAA Tournament regional? Our prediction
"Once we click, man, we can be dangerous."
Such was the sentiment from Southern Miss baseball's Christopher Sargent, and it stands as the hope for the rest of his Golden Eagle teammates.
USM coach Scott Berry's team (43-16) will try to win the Hattiesburg Regional, which begins at 1 p.m. Friday at Pete Taylor Park. That's when No. 1 seed Southern Miss will face No. 4 seed Army. The rest of the field includes No. seed LSU and No. 3 seed Kennesaw State, which will duke it out at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Golden Eagles, after winning 15 straight, have gone just 10-9. Sargent said recently the reason for that was pitchers and hitters not clicking at the same time.
Both have proven capable. Southern Miss is hitting .283 as a team and has a 3.04 earned run average. The Golden Eagles have power in the starting lineup and power arms on the mound.
Lately, however, when one or the other performs well, the other has not. If that continues, any one of the other participants in Hattiesburg this could advance.
The most obvious candidate would be LSU, a program as decorated as any in the country when it comes to postseason success. The Tigers have been to the College World Series 18 times and won it six times. And LSU is strong again, especially at the plate, where co-SEC player of the year Dylan Crews leads the way with 21 homers.
Kennesaw State and Army don't immediately jump off the page as contenders to win the regional, but that doesn't mean they can't have an impact.
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Hattiesburg Regional prediction
LSU will get some serious national consideration as the favorite to advance to the Super Regional. The Tigers have the third-best strength of schedule and are ranked 25th in RPI.
Southern Miss is at home, though. For the third time in program history, the Golden Eagles are hosting a regional. They've only advanced past a regional once, when they won the Atlanta Regional in 2009.
Southern Miss has the arms to hang with anybody in the country. The bats will need to wake up after a tough go of things last week at the Conference USA tournament. But the bet here is the Golden Eagles (with their veteran lineup) will do just that and win the Hattiesburg Regional.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Can Southern Miss baseball win its NCAA Regional? Our predictions
