BREAKING: NCAA Reveals Southern Miss Seeding and Opponents for Hattiesburg Regional

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Coming off Sun Belt Conference championships in both the regular season and conference tournament, the Southern Miss baseball team was announced as one of the 16 regional sites on Sunday night. It's the fifth time in program history that there will be a Hattiesburg Regional. The only thing left to find out was the Golden Eagles' seeding and which opposing teams would be making a trip to Pete Taylor Park this coming weekend.

Southern Miss Seeding / Regional Opponents Revealed

On Monday morning, the NCAA committee revealed Southern Miss (44-15) as the No. 9 seed in the tournament. The opponents for the Golden Eagles in the Hattiesburg Regional will be: Little Rock, Jacksonville State and Virginia. Southern Miss enters the tournament as the highest seed among all the Mississippi teams.

Despite having one of the best non-conference strength of schedules in the entire nation and doing exceptionally well with it, the Golden Eagles still didn't do quite enough in the eyes of the NCAA committee to warrant a top-8 national seed. However, Southern Miss did receive a favorable draw of opponents for this year's regional compared to previous years. That's not to discount the talent of the teams coming to Hattiesburg, as it will be a tough regional, regardless, but it is also very winnable for the Eagles if they bring their A-game heading into the weekend.

The Golden Eagles swept all the Sun Belt championships in a year that was exceptionally strong for the conference. Southern Miss was one of five Sun Belt teams to make the field of 64, joining Coastal Carolina, Louisiana, Texas State and Troy.

What Eagles' Potential Super Regional Picture Looks Like

USM, Drey Barrett — Drey Barrett was responsible for six of the Golden Eagles' seven runs against Troy on Friday night, including a walk-off grand slam while being down to his final strike. | @SouthernMissBSB

Since the Golden Eagles are the No. 9 seed, that means they'll be matched up with the No. 8 seed, Florida (39-19), on their side of the bracket. That means if the Eagles win their regional and the Gators win theirs, USM will play at Florida for Super Regionals. However, if USM can win its regional and have a lower seed in Florida's regional pull off an upset in Gainesville, there would be a Hattiesburg Super Regional on deck. We'll see how it goes.

If the Golden Eagles do end up going to Gainesville for Super Regionals, it would be somewhat poetic, as that was where the program played at for Supers the last and only time it broke through and made it to Omaha in 2009.

Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more USM baseball updates leading up to the Hattiesburg Regional this weekend.

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