Southern Miss baseball kicks off new season with annual media day at Pete Taylor Park

Continuing the tradition of excellence. That was the main theme at Pete Taylor Park on Friday for the 2025 Southern Miss baseball media day. Players and coach es alike all have one goal in mind – reaching Omaha.

“Winning the conference, winning the tournament, hosting regionals, hosting the super and obviously reaching Omaha…that’s our goals.”

“The goal is always going to be Omaha.”

“Really the ultimate goal is Omaha every single year. That is where we want to go. We want to win Omaha.”

“We know what it looks like, we’ve done it. It’s not going to be easy but our goal is to do it again.”

Big goals for a team with high expectations year-in-and-year-out. If the Golden Eagles can get leadership from their head coach, all they way down to the freshman, coach Christian Ostrander and former St. Martin high school star Landen Payne know they can continue the tradition of excellence.

“We hear it every single day, Payne said. “Tradition of excellence…try to add to that board. We bust our butt every day to try and add to that board and it is truly amazing being here.”

“We talk about it all the time,” coach Ostrander said. “Our goal is we try to add as many numbers as we can to that tradition of excellence sign, you know, however many that means.”

Former Vancleave high school baseball star, and fifth year senior, Caron Paetow knows what it takes to win at Southern Miss. He, along with other upperclassmen, have won two conference tournaments and hosted two super regionals over the last three seasons. Paetow and coach Ostrander know that the experience this year’s team has gained over the years will only help them when the postseason comes around.

“Experience definitely does help you win ballgames,” Paetow said. Being able to have experience and know what it’s like….there is a different atmosphere in postseason. For you to be able to have some experience in June and teach the younger guys, say hey this is what it’s going to be like to prepare them a little bit, it definitely does help a lot.”

“Oh that is huge,” coach Ostrander said. “That is going to help them not only in the present during these moments as an athlete but it is going to help them one day in life too. Having the experience that we do with these guys…very fortunate for that and that experience is invaluable.”

Southern Miss kicks off the regular season on February 14th as the Golden Eagles welcome the Lafayette Leopards to Pete Taylor Park for a four game series.