How Southern Miss, Ole Miss baseball fans embraced their super regional-sized party
HATTIESBURG — A red telephone booth sits outside Southern Miss’ international center without a soul in sight. Just east, an Oseola McCarty statue basks in the sun near a fountain still with no one to be found.
The hush of a college campus is met with birds chirping and occasional loose limbs falling from trees, likely a result of the week’s rain storms.
In reality, the setting was just the calm before another storm taking place just north at the university's athletics facilities, where the thump of bean bags hitting wooden boards is met with the clink and fizz of beers and seltzers opening.
Southern Miss baseball's bout against Ole Miss in the Hattiesburg Super Regional has been billed — and rightfully so — as a seminal moment in Mississippi sports history. The winner of the three-game series advances to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, where a national champion will be crowned, and the matchup is magnified by instate battle lines. Mississippi is only the eighth state in college baseball history to host a completely in-state super regional.
Just behind the union complex and M.M. Roberts Stadium, where the Golden Eagles play football, the celebration is underway. And Mississippi knows how to throw a college baseball party, though not many have reached the magnitude of this function.
“It’s special for the state,” Brent Gregory said with a sausage plate in hand under the shade of a tent.
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Gregory, a Southern Miss alumnus and president of East Central Community College, is sporting a white visor for his alma mater. Beside him, fellow alumnus Roman Holmes sits in his camouflage gold and black USM shirt enjoying the tailgate before heading to Pete Taylor Park, where the super regional will take place.
Beyond them, fans are rolling in. Southern Miss, understanding its capacity of 4,300 isn’t enough to accommodate the flood of people this weekend, set up three big screens just outside its football stadium.
Some fans spent the night to claim spots in line. Others, such as Gregory and Holmes, set up around 9 a.m. for the 3 p.m. first pitch.
“It’s a big deal down here where we are,” Holmes says. “Baseball is good down here.”
Hattiesburg isn’t as traditional of a college town as Oxford or Starkville. Its businesses don't rely as heavily on the student population, but the Golden Eagles have become a welcomed bonus.
Robert St. John has watched as crowds flood the five restaurants and two bars he owns in town – rallying around this nationally prominent non-Power Five team looking for its second trip to Omaha.
Fans not tailgating are sitting in midtown just off campus, either watching on the TVs inside or enjoying food and drink before flocking to the stadium.
“It’s great to get everybody in town,” St. John said. “I wish we had a bigger baseball stadium because if we could seat 20,000, we’d probably fill it today and tomorrow.”
The seas of gold and black are met with plenty of red and blue. At the front of the general admission line, a fan in a red Lance Lynn jersey sits in his folding chair well before gates open. A few yards beyond, Southern Miss fans do the same waiting to get to their chairbacks.
Golden Eagles coach Scott Berry walked by the anxious crowd just after noon in a white T-shirt tucked into jeans. Berry, the sun reflecting off his bald head, strolled by unbothered onto the turf field where he walked around picking up each small blemish before the national lights shine.
Moments after Berry headed back to his office, the wail of police sirens crept from over the bleachers. Ole Miss’ buses had arrived.
Southern Miss tasted the College World Series in 2009, and its fans are hungry for more. But as Game 1 starter Dylan DeLucia and his Rebel teammates stepped off, a reminder of the task ahead spread through Hattiesburg: Ole Miss was one win shy of reaching Omaha in 2021.
The energy Saturday was just a start.
“Whether Southern wins or loses, Hattiesburg is probably going to get burnt to the ground this weekend,” USM fans and alumnus Harley Warren said from his perch in the tailgating field.
Omaha knows how to throw a college baseball party, too. The Magnolia State has already sent its RSVP. Either the Rebels or Golden Eagles will bring a few thousand plus-ones with them.
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Southern Miss, Ole Miss baseball fans prepare for super regional party
