Southern Miss alum Walker Powell shines in return to Biloxi

BILOXI, Miss. (WXXV) –For the first time in more than four years, Southern Miss alum Walker Powell started a game at Biloxi’s MGM Park on Saturday. He was wearing a different jersey, but pitching at the same stadium and posting the same results.

“Every time I see this park that’s the first thing that I think of and winning that with Southern Miss, and a lot of good memories coming out of this place, and so it was cool to come back here and have a good outing,” said the Tennessee Smokies right-handed pitcher.

1,540 days after Powell threw four scoreless innings in USM’s 4-0 Conference USA Tournament championship game win over FAU, the one they call “Big Worm” did it again, throwing five shutout frames.

“It’s cool for it to kind of come full circle like this and pitch back here in South Mississippi,” said Powell. “It’s really special. I love this place.”

Powell’s final stat line was three hits, three walks, zero earned runs and one strikeout across those five innings in a 4-2 win over the Biloxi Shuckers, lowering his season ERA to 3.84. He says he’s the same pitcher he was for the Golden Eagles, just with a little better stuff.

“Yeah, I’m just a pitch to contact guy and I’m going to get outs and I’m going to get you deep into ball games.”

Powell did plenty of that during his six years in Hattiesburg, ending his Southern Miss career with 30 wins, good for second all-time in program history. He won C-USA Pitcher of the Year as a senior in 2021, before signing with the Chicago Cubs as an undrafted free agent less than two months later – having learned plenty of life lessons from the now retired Scott Berry along the way.

“Coach Berry is the man,” said Powell. “He taught me a lot. He teaches his players how to be men first before players, and I really valued that from him, and he’s the type of guy that I can call up any time of night and he’s going to be there for me, just like all those other coaches up there, and he’s just a special human. I’m very privileged to say that I played for that guy.”

Last season, Powell went 11-2 with a sub-3 ERA across three levels of MiLB baseball. This season, he’s made all 16 of his starts at the Double-A level with a mark of 9-5, essentially living the dream until he gets to live the dream.

“This is all I could ever ask for,” said Powell. “Making it to the big leagues, I hope that comes. I hope that day comes. But not everybody gets to experience that, so what I’m trying to do is kind of stay positive and enjoy the minor leagues as much as I can because it could all be done tomorrow, so I’m just trying to enjoy every second I’m on a baseball field.”