Lynch Legacy: Brothers Tim, Danny leave mark on Southern Miss baseball

On Monday, Southern Miss Senior third baseman Danny Lynch played his final game in a black and gold uniform more than 10 years after his older brother, Tim Lynch, played his first.

The two brothers never played together at USM, but their Lynch Legacy is still one that’s better told together.

Perhaps the greatest play in the history of Pete Taylor Park, the 8-6-3-2- double cut, starring Tim Lynch as the 3 in a singular moment that ended a four-year NCAA Tournament drought and completely changed the trajectory of Southern Miss baseball.

USM hasn’t missed a regional since, seven in a row. In fact, now two straight Hattiesburg Super Regionals, and Tim has come back for both. Tim said, “From 2013 to what it is now, you can’t get a seat in this place.”

These days, you can find Tim sitting down the first base line, an area of the park he knows quite well from both outside the fence with some post-game suds and inside the fence where he led the Golden Eagles with a .365 batting average as a senior over at first base. Coach Scott Berry said, “That young man made himself into a baseball player, body wise, IQ wise, everything it takes to go to that next level, and he was rewarded with a ninth-round draft pick last year as a senior.”

About the time that Tim was wrapping up his minor league career with the New York Yankees, younger brother Danny was graduating from William T. Dwyer High School near their hometown of Jupiter, Florida, ready to follow in big bro’s footsteps as a freshman at Southern Miss. Tim said, “My parents had made so many friends here that my second, third year it became where they were coming up almost every other weekend, and Danny, as the little brother, he’s got no choice. He’s coming too. So, he was up here a bunch. He’s probably seen 50 games here before he even played here, so I’m sure that added to him wanting to come here. It’s been a dream.”

Fast forward back to 2023, Danny is a senior playing the best game of his life on Senior Day with not one, but two grand slams. “To see him hit two grand slams on senior day, it’s the universe coming together, I think. It was like a storybook. And you would think it would be a storybook ending, but hopefully this will be the storybook ending here in Hattiesburg.”

As we now know, USM’s quest for Omaha simply wasn’t meant to be, but in the process of winning the Sun Belt Tournament Championship and the Auburn Regional title, Danny broke the all-time school record for games played and he did so without seeking too much advice from the other number 26 in the family. Danny said, “We don’t talk about it much. I think he tries not to put too much pressure on me. He just kind of lets me do my thing. He’ll every once in a while send me a little tidbit if he feels like I need it if I’m slumping or something like that. But he’s pretty good about letting me do my thing, and I’m sure it’s something we’ll probably talk about a lot once I’m done playing, but for now we don’t talk about it all that much.”

But let the record show, they do talk a lot at least according to Head Coach Scott Berry. “Well, there’s a lot of similarities. They both can argue, they both have opinions and they never shut up. And all those things are great things. And they’re very good baseball players and they have a high IQ of the game. To have that presence – both of them were like player coaches on this field. Timmy was the same way. The only difference was they played on the opposite sides of the field. Just grateful to have that family associated with our Golden Eagle family.”

Although the Lynch Legacy may be out of innings on the field, Danny is going to hang around the program a little longer, starting next season as a graduate assistant.

After that, maybe then they can finally catch a game in the Roost together. “He’ll be a tremendous asset moving forward with his ability to communicate. He’s going to be an excellent coach one day, and this is just going to be the start of his career if he chooses to stay in the coaching profession.”

“You want to leave it better than you found it. Above all, I hope people say that we gave it everything we had, we competed our butts off and we left it better than we found it. I mean that’s all you can hope for.”

That’s nine out of the last 11 seasons that Southern Miss baseball has had a Lynch brother on the roster.