Southern Miss sets series attendance record versus Mississippi State

With the return of college baseball comes the return of one of the most unique fan experiences at USM’s Right Field Roost. Today, Southern Miss announced it’s opening weekend series was an all-time best.
Throughout the course of the three-game series versus Mississippi State, a school record 14,906 fans ventured through the turnstiles. That’s upwards of two thousand more than the previous high mark set back in 2007 when 12,000 plus were in attendance for at the time seventh ranked Rice.
Many Golden Eagles fan consider opening day the best day of the year, especially when a Magnolia State rival comes to town, and they have a pretty convincing argument.
“Oh, it should be a holiday in this area.”
“Man, I’ll tell you what. Every opening weekend I’ll wake up on that Friday morning, feels like Christmas Day.”
Mike Blissett with the Right Field Roost maintenance crew said, “Great together, tailgate, enjoy a lot of good baseball, good friends, can’t beat it. Yearly maintenance we had to take care of, it’s obstructing their view from the Roost. So we had to knock down those cattails and I’m a little late getting to it this year, I normally do it preseason. But today is the day.”
Right Field Roost ‘Mayor’ Jody Lott said, “It’s special any time these two get together, in-state rivals, you’ve got a totally different mix this year. There’s players that were here last year but not this year, so it’s starting fresh.”
Ben Waddle said, “It’s just really special to play a team like of this caliber for this opening weekend. Usually we always play a decent team but this year the team is a little bit more prestige, it’s just fun to have good baseball out here. We’re really creating a good baseball culture at Southern Miss, and we’re ready to rock on”
Individually, the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday crowds were the 7th, 8th, and 10th largest in school history.