USM Baseball finding closure in humanity: COVID-19 ‘bigger than baseball’

A Southern Miss baseball season with no baseball; the sad truth facing every Division I program around the country as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

There’s comfort in knowing both the NCAA and Conference USA will go down on the right side of history, but what about the side of history that never happens?

A schedule with 39 games left, an entire season with no champion, and careers with no senior night, what about that side?

“Once I clean my locker out – probably tomorrow – is probably when it’s going to hit me for real. But yeah, it’s just such a strange way to end my last baseball season. I mean never would have I imagined.” To be fair, it’s hard to imagine something that’s never happened before. Starting with the NCAA canceling the College World Series on Thursday to a series of regular season suspensions by Conference USA, culminating with the league’s decision to finally pull the plug altogether on Monday.

The aftermath is a Southern Miss baseball schedule that reads ‘canceled’. “The hardest part about the whole thing is not knowing what’s going on. You just want to have an answer soon nowadays, and whenever nobody knows what to tell you, it kind of sucks.”

The Golden Eagles were presumably well on their way to their fifth straight 40-win season with an overall record of 12-4 through 16 games.

That doesn’t even include potential runs through the C-USA Tournament, an NCAA Regional, and perhaps beyond. Second baseman Matthew Guidry said, “It really kind of hurts for the fact that we’re not going to be able to see the results of all the hard work that this team put in. That really hurts. I hate it for all of our guys cause Coach Berry said it multiple times – this is one of the hardest working teams that he’s ever had or coached at Southern Miss, and he’s not lying about that. It kind of sucks, but we’re not going to be able to see what would have happened.”

‘What ifs’ could be especially painful for USM’s nine seniors led by team captains Matthew Guidry and Gulfport alum Alex Nelms.  Even with the NCAA granting relief to spring athletes, the former Admiral says he’s played his last collegiate baseball game to pursue his new dream of becoming a doctor. “What I’ve been reflecting on is just how lucky I’ve been to be a part of the two programs that I was. I mean Gulfport High, Coach Mac, all the other coaches I had. I mean I made lifelong friends, developed as a player, as a person. And then got the incredible opportunity to come here, and could not have asked for a better place to end up and play my college career and end my baseball career. I mean it’s just Southern Miss, these are the best four years of my life. That’s what they say, and it’s true.”

As for Guidry, the fifth year senior says he’s currently more focused on family than baseball, but will make that call when the appropriate time comes.

If he is to hang it up at the hands of COVID-19, here’s a number the Coronavirus can’t take away: a 72 game on-base streak to ride off into the Right Field Roost sunset. “That Tweet that Southern Miss baseball had for the Scott Van Pelt, you know what I’m talking about? Whenever they Tweeted that, that kind of made it real. Only God knows what the future holds, but there is a possibility that was my last game. So it’s so crazy that one Tweet could really mean that much to somebody.”

At the end of the day, Southern Miss will still be reigning conference champions heading into 2021, knowing all parties involved did the right thing to maintain their humanity even at the expense of magic at the Pete. “Obviously baseball is baseball and I mean it sucks for sure, but God has a plan for everything. Things happen for a reason.”

“It’s not all about us. It’s not all about sports. It’s really just about the greater good, and it’s a lot bigger than college baseball.”

Nelms says he’s attending the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson starting this August.