Mississippi State Baseball Tournament Regional Preview: Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles
Mississippi State begins their Road to Omaha Friday evening in Hattiesburg. As part of a 3-part series, we take a look at the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles of Southern Miss look to use their home field advantage as they earned a regional host spot in the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
The Golden Eagles play UIC Friday at 1 p.m. CT in their own ballpark. The Golden Eagles look to rebound after losing to Rice in the Conference USA championship game.
Southern Miss has played both the 2 seed (Mississippi State) and the 3 seed (South Alabama) this season and defeated them both. The Eagles finished the year 48-14 (25-5 C-USA) with a stunning record of 24-6 at their home ballpark, Pete Taylor Park.
Related Story: Hattiesburg Regional Preview: South Alabama
We dive a little deeper into this Southern Miss baseball team below.
Batting
The Eagles are batting .311/.416/.502 collectively as a team. They have 135 doubles, 16 triples and a whopping 85 home-runs.
They are also just as good on the base paths, stealing 76 bases on 97 attempts. Perhaps the best hitter on this team is 1B Dylan Burdeaux. Burdeaux (.348/.419/.547) has hit 11 homeruns with 68 RBIs and 24 doubles, but what he is great at is stealing bases. He has stolen 20 out of 22 bases during the course of this season.
Right behind him is the 6 foot 5 freshman outfielder, Matt Wallner. Wallner is more then likely going to win the National Freshman of the Year award due to his outstanding 2017 campaign. He has hit at a clip of .345/.466/.286 with a powerful 19 home runs, as well as 61 RBIs. You may also see Wallner on the mind in relief appearance, as he has a 1.84 ERA in 9 appearances on the year.
Other players to watch when the Golden Eagles are up to bat are Taylor Braley — who is another strong power hitter — as well as outfielder Mason Irby and infielder Matthew Guidry — who sports the teams highest batting average.
The Golden Eagles will for sure be tough to keep off the base paths, but the key to getting to these Eagles is going to be getting to them early in the count and keeping the ball on the ground.
Related Story: Hattiesburg Regional Preview: UIC Flames
Pitching
The Eagles pitching is led by Kirk McCarty (10-2, 2.96 ERA). McCarty has a solid four pitches, all with great command. He pitched 91.1 innings on 15 starts with 96 strikeouts to a low 16 walks.
Besides McCarty, the Eagles have relied on their bullpen to get them out of jams. Other Starting options include two-way player Taylor Braley (6-2, 3.30 ERA) and Colt Smith (6-1, 3.08 ERA). You may also see right-hander Hayden Roberts (4-2, 4,41 ERA) get a start.
Roberts has struggled to go deep into games this year, so that is something to watch this weekend. RHP Nick Sandlin is the go to guy in the bullpen with a record of 10-1 and an ERA of 2.16. Sandlin has seven saves on the year. He is at his best when coming into the 7th or 8th to help get the team out of a jam.
You will also see J.C. Keys (3-3, 5.15 ERA) come in for relief. Keys has a low 90s fastball and a wicked slider but has struggled with command and really struggles with runners on base. Other pitchers you may see come in the games are LHP Stevie Powers (3-0, 5.40 ERA), RHP Trent Driver (2-1, 1.84 ERA), and the aforementioned Matt Wallner.
Overview
The key to defeating these Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi will be getting on the board early and keeping them off of it.
If you can get to the 5th or 6th Inning with a decent lead and force them to rely on their bullpen, then you will have a good chance to defeat them. But, if these Eagles get rolling on the offensive side, then you can forget it. The Golden Eagles are one of the best hitting team in all of College Baseball.
Maroon and White Nation will have full coverage of this weekend’s games.