(Photo from Southern Miss Athletics | Joe Harper, bgnphoto.com)
- Southern Miss, Ole Miss and Mississippi State fans have early season optimism as their teams are off to hot starts.
There’s magic with college baseball in Mississippi.
We know it, and people who “ain’t from round here” know it too. They also know it when that magic isn’t happening, and there’s been precious little for Mississippi State and Ole Miss since their back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.
Southern Miss in this spell has become the standard in the state, hosting super regionals back-to-back then transitioning through a coaching change to reach the championship round of the Knoxville Regional last year before falling to eventual national champion Tennessee.
The Golden Eagles went 20-10 in the Sun Belt – which last year was SEC Lite – in Christian Ostrander’s debut season.
Magic is why a cold night game in February was a tough ticket last week as Southern Miss knocked off Mississippi State 3-0. The Golden Eagles drew their fifth-largest crowd to Pete Taylor Park at 5,741.
For the sake of clarity, let’s point out that in some respects Southern Miss can’t be considered an equal partner in this discussion. The difference in resources between the SEC and mid-majors is too great.
“Over the years before NIL they have proven that they can recruit there. They’ve gotten some big-time dudes,” said Ben McDonald, an ESPN analyst and a big-time dude as MLB’s No. 1 overall pick for the Orioles in 1989.
McDonald says Southern Miss is an elite mid-major “right there at the top” for that level. That makes the Golden Eagles a team that can beat SEC teams on any given night, whether midweek in February or coming from the loser’s bracket to beat LSU twice in the Hattiesburg Regional in 2022 then winning a road regional at Auburn the next season.
Southern Miss was not able to beat SEC teams in the next rounds those seasons.
“Recruiting has changed so much. Southern Miss has a reputation, they’re on the map, but I would certainly think Ole Miss and Mississippi State have more NIL money for the baseball program than what Southern Miss does,” McDonald said.
But winning at such a high level is the driver for magic off the field, the fan experience in Mississippi.
State and Ole Miss have two of the top college baseball stadiums in the country, and they sit less than 2 hours a part in a state that ranks No. 37 in Gross Domestic Product.
Home baseball weekends are special.
College baseball fans love and support winning teams. Nothing magical about that.
What’s different around Mississippi is the outfield experience.
It’s better in the outfield
In Starkville there’s the Left Field Lounge and center field condos. Who else in college baseball lives at the ballpark?
Ole Miss has its more mature revelers in left field, its students and their famous beer showers in right.
Both outfields have a clash of cultures that find common ground for nine innings.
Southern Miss doesn’t have the left field seats, but its Right Field Roost begins down the first base foul line as gates open and people drive vehicles to their spots.
There are variations, but this kind of outfield presence doesn’t happen at other places.
McDonald calls State and Ole Miss “arguably the best two fan bases in college baseball. We know how crazy the fans are about baseball in the state of Mississippi.”
Yet with all that passion, all that magic, hasn’t protected the Bulldogs and Rebels from a slide down the ladder.
“Winning the national championship takes a lot of veteran guys, really,” says Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com. “It’s really hard to replace those guys.”
Rogers noted the impact of Tanner Allen on State’s championship team, of Tim Elko on Ole Miss’.
“They were big leaders, almost like icons in their communities,” he said.
Allen, an outfielder, was an All-American and first-team All-SEC in 2021. The American Baseball Coaches Association named him its national player of the year.
Elko gained game for playing through a partially torn ACL in 2021. He hit 24 home runs on the championship team the following season.
Ole Miss also dealt with a key injury in its fall from grace, the two-year absence of left-handed pitcher Hunter Elliott, one of two great starters in the 2022 run.
Still, in the first two seasons after its championship, Mississippi State was 9-21 in SEC play and missed the conference tournament each time.
The Bulldogs took a big step forward last year, going 17-13 in the SEC before losing in a road regional at Virginia.
The Rebels hope they can take that step this season. They were 6-24 in SEC play in 2023, 11-19 last year. They qualified for the conference tournament but lost to State 2-1 in the single-elimination opening round.
“The drop-off was more than expected when you talk about two of the best baseball programs in the country, which is what I consider Ole Miss and State to be,” McDonald said.
Magic breeds anticipation, and all three of Mississippi’s Division 1 teams have that right now.
A bounce-back year in Mississippi?
State and Ole Miss are both 6-1, with Southern Miss 7-1.
Rogers believes both State and Southern Miss could be playing at home for the NCAA Tournament.
“I know State fans will certainly enjoy being discussed as a (possible) host. Southern Miss could be in the mix too. I think they’re going to finish either one or two in the Sun Belt, and if they do that, in a fifth or higher-rated conference, they’ll have a shot to host.”
He’s optimistic though less sold on the Rebels after watching them defeat ranked opponents Arizona and Clemson in Arlington, Texas on Opening Weekend.
“I thought (third baseman) Luke Hill looked like an elite player. He just has a lot better approach. He kind of seemed like their heartbeat. That’s not to say he wasn’t a leader last year, but it feels like he’s taking command of that team a little bit.
“I actually feel like this could be a really good year for the state.”
