Eagle’s Landing

We are now 2/3 of the way through the baseball season and the baseball team continues to win at a higher rate than their numbers would indicate.   Before last night win against MS Valley State, the team was hitting about .010 point higher than the opposition, had an era advatage of about 1/2 run, was fielding slightly worse, and had only a handful of more runs on the year.

 Add to that a run of injuries to key performers and a couple of defections just before the season started and it is difficult to find fault with the job Coach Plamer has done this year.  He has caght a small amount of flak for not being able to get over the hump in a regional in recent years including some from me.  But it seems to me he has got just about as much out of this team as there was to get.

The next step is going to have to be improved recruiting to continue improving our pitching depth and getting a lineup back to where it was in 03 and 04.

We’re about a third of the way into the season and so far it looks like a carbon copy or the last few.   Tht could all change today.  The Golden Eagles have a chance to make a statement by winning the series at Rice.  It would be the kind of win that could lead to getting a host spot in a regional.  The difference in being a 1 seed at home vs. a 2 seed in someone else’s park is huge.  It’s the kind of edge that can get us over the hump in the post season.

 The question today is are we up to the moment?

Good week for the baseball team, going 4-0 by beating teams they should beat.  Next weekend’s conference opener against surprising Central Florida will be a good barometer.

Congratulations to Coach James Green.  His Delta Devils are going dancing.  Nice reward for a class act. 

 Here in Mobile, there’s a lot of crossed fingers for the South Alabama Jaguars.  In the classic case of the life of the mid-major, they are sweating it out today on the bubble despite a 26 win season after losing in the semi-finals of the Sun Belt tournament on their home court.  They’re a well-coached and talented team that will be a tough out for soeone if they get their chance.

Sadly, there isn’t the same anticipation in Hattiesburg.  Looks like we’ll be shut out of the post-season again.  We finished the season strong, but taken as a whole it was a disappointment.  In fact in a theme we’ve seen in both football and baseball recently, the season was the spitting image of last season.  Sometimes I think we should be the Fighting Groud Hogs rather than the Golden Eagles.  A lull in late December, early January including losses to McNeese State, Savannah State, and Central Florida was the difference in the year.  Next year will need to bring the next jump up in results or it will be time to take a hard look at the program.

Four years ago, when we hired Larry Eustachy, days like today were what was envisioned.  Large crowds, great atmosphere, exciting basketball, plying competitively with the best in the nation, we saw all of that today, despite the 9 point loss.  Unfortunately, we’ve seen way too little of this over the last 4 seasons.

Today the excitement was great.  It brought back fond memories of the Green House rocking from the mid-80s thru the Spoon era.  Unfortunately, the talent gap, the physicality gap was too great to overcome.  Memphis, while looking lethargic for long periods, still looked like men against boys (or Superman in Derrick Rose’s case) when they chose to turn it on.

The challenge for Southern Miss now is to build on this.  That goes for the fans as much as team.  Will RGC go back to being 1/4 filled for Tuesday’s matchup with UTEP.  For the first time in a couple of seasons, we actually get to have a Senior night. 

It’s been a pretty disappointing season with some real lows.  But we have a chance to end the year on a high.  I hope 50-60% of the fans that showed up today make it back out Tuesday.  I hope the team shows the same desire and heart as they did today.  I hope we end the season at .500 in conference play and win a game or 2 in Memphis.

I hope for all of this.  But I can’t yet say I expect it.

Weather permitting, Friday is opening day for baseball.  I came to college baseball late.  I casually followed USM’s results, went to a game occasionally, and watched some of the world series on ESPN.  That changed in 2002.  As I watched the team develop into what would become the best USM team ever in 2003, I found myself appreciating the game more.  In addition to the obvious attractions, I liked that there was still a sport out  there that was still fairly pure.  I’ve had a lifelong love of sports, but there are times where I feel like money and media over-saturation are slowly ruining the games.

 So the last 5 years have been enjoyable, witnessing what has been, arguably, the best run of any USM sport ever.  Yet, I can’t help but want a little more.  Baseball is maybe the one sport where USM is a have, not a have not (or at least a have less).  The last  years have also shown a disturbing trend of bad losses in regionals to lower seeded teams.  Will this year be the year we break through and win a regional?

My prediction is 35 wins, a tie for second in CUSA, a 2 seed in Starkville where win our first 2 then lose 2 to be eliminated.  A small step forward, but not a very satisfying one.  We play to our seed for the first time since ‘03, but lack the offensive firepower or the commitment to small ball to comlpiment our best pitching staff enough to get through to a super regional.

I was looking at the 2008 baseball media guide the other night, http://southernmiss.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/0708-m-basebl-guide.html, and I lost count of the misspellings, typos and grammtical errors.  One diamond girl was listed as hailing from “Bay St. Lewis”.  I’d feel a lot more sympathetic to the “we’re poor” defense for various shortcomings, if we’d just do a better job at things that have little or no cost to get right.

While wondering how to write a blog….

 Thanks to Bald Eagle for the opportunity to put a few thoughts out there as well as the job he’s done revitalizing Eagle Post.

I grew up on the coast in Long Beach and became a fan of Southern Miss sports as a senior in HS watching Reggie Collier burst onto the scene.  I’d been aware of Reggie ever since he dunked on me in a district tournament game in my only memorable athletic experience. 

 My checkered academic career allowed to span most of the 80s at various USM campuses.  Too many nights spent at the End Zone, Nick’s, Zeke’s and Tal’s didn’t speed up my exit from Hattiesburg, but it did allow me to experience both legendary USM QBs as a student.    I’ve been hooked ever since.

 I look forward to writing this blog and encourage all feedback.  I think most of you will recognize the handle from various message boards through the lst 10 years.

The upcoming baseball season and the first spring practice for Coach Fedora should make the coming weeks a very interesting time in USM history.

Come back often to hear from Gary O!