Southern Miss season comes to an end in the Knoxville Regional round against No. 1 Tennessee

As the regional round of the NCAA baseball Tournament comes to an end, so does the season for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. While it wasn’t the ending they were hoping for, there are still so many positives to take away from this season.

USM’s season came to an end on Sunday after losing to No. 1 ranked Tennessee 12-3 in the Regional Championship round.

Despite coming short of the teams third straight Super Regional, the Golden Eagles were able to accomplish a lot this year. Under first-year head coach Christian Ostrander, Southern Miss won 43 games, that is the most under a first-year head coach in program history.

Southern Miss finished second in the Sun Belt Conference standings but won their second consecutive conference tournament. Following their loss, Coach Ostrander spoke about what this season was like to him, while senior Slade Wilks spoke on wrapping up his career as a Golden Eagle.

“I am just very grateful,” said Ostrander. “I have been surrounded by a great group of young men like Slade, all of those guys, and everybody associated with this program. It’s special and there is a culture at Southern Miss that we are very proud of. It’s our job to continue that, further it, and I thought these guys did a great job of doing that this year.”

“It feels like a short four years,” Wilks said. “It’s something that, you know, has been a lot of fun. I have been a part of a lot of great baseball teams, won a lot of baseball games, but the friendships and the brothers that I have made for life is something that is going to stick with me.”