Golden Eagles Stay Steady in NCAA Baseball Top 10 Ahead of Sun Belt Tournament

The Southern Miss baseball team is in a great position as it heads into the Sun Belt tournament this week as the No. 1 seed.

Emery Powell

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Golden Eagles will be soaring into the Sun Belt Conference tournament in Montgomery, AL, later this week as the No. 1 seed and regular-season champions after a dominant sweep of Georgia Southern over the weekend.

Despite Southern Miss' perfect Senior Weekend, it didn't rise in the latest national rankings. However, the Golden Eagles stayed steady, leaving the door open for a potential national seed in the NCAA tournament if they run the table in the SBC tournament.

Where Eags Land in Latest Rankings

Emery Powell

D1Baseball: The Eags stayed at No. 8 in the D1Baseball polls just like last week.

Baseball America: Same as D1Baseball, the Eags stayed No. 8 this week in the Baseball America polls.

Perfect Game: The Eags stayed at No. 10 in this week's Perfect Game rankings.

USA Today Coaches Poll: The Eags fell from No. 9 to No. 10 in this week's USA Today Coaches Poll rankings. Texas A&M was the team that jumped Southern Miss one spot.

NCBWA: The Eags stayed put at No. 8 in this week's NCBWA rankings.

Next Up: SBC Tourney ... and likely a Hattiesburg Regional

Emery Powell

Southern Miss will now wait to see who its first opponent will be in the SBC tournament. The single elimination round of the tournament will be on Tuesday, with the 7-seed Louisiana taking on the 10-seed Marshall and the 8-seed Old Dominion taking on the 9-seed Georgia State. The Golden Eagles will take on the worst remaining seed among those four on Wednesday.

No matter what happens in the SBC tournament, the Golden Eagles, who finished the regular season with a 40-14 record, the No. 13 RPI, and a Q1/Q2 record of 23-10, should be a lock for hosting a Hattiesburg Regional nearly two weeks from now. With that being said, though, head coach Christian Ostrander and the rest of the guys certianly aren't going into Montgomery thinking about it like that. No matter how likely it is, they don't want to leave anything up to chance, and running the table in the SBC tournament would truly solidfy not only hosting a regional, but perhaps securing a top-8 national seed as well.

Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for extensive coverage from Montgomery.