Rankings Riser: Southern Miss Baseball Soars Back Into Top 20 After Weekend Sweep

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss baseball team completed a sweep of Texas State on Sunday to improve to 28-12 overall and 11-7 in Sun Belt play, putting the Golden Eagles in sole possession of second place in the standings. That sweep resulted in a rise in the latest Top-25 national baseball rankings on Monday morning.

Where Eags Land in Latest Rankings

D1Baseball: The Golden Eagles come in at No. 18 this week after being ranked No. 22 last week.

Baseball America: The Golden Eagles come in at No. 16 this week after being ranked No. 20 last week.

Perfect Game: After dropping the Golden Eagles out of the Top 25 last week, Perfect Game ranked them at No. 22 this week.

Check back later for more rankings as they're released on Monday.

How Eags Got Back On Track

Southern Miss had struggled for the last month, playing like a .500 ballclub rather than the one that started the season 15-2 against the No. 1 strength of schedule, but the team appeared to finally turn a corner over the weekend.

A big reason for the Golden Eagles being able to pull off a sweep against a high-powered Texas State offense was getting three really good outings from all three of their starting pitchers, including sophomore RHP Camden Clark, who registered a career-high eight strikeouts in his first start after moving from his closer role. Overall, the Golden Eagles registered 39 strikeouts over the weekend, including 17 in the series finale to finish off the sweep.

"It's huge," Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said of his starting pitchers setting the tone all weekend. "That takes pressure off the bullpen. It lengthens out your staff, lengthens out your bullpen a little bit. More important than that, just kinda setting the tone, letting you be in games until the middle innings (or whenever) you have to hand it off to the bullpen. We have plenty of pieces to do it."

This week, the Golden Eagles take on Tulane at Pete Taylor Park on Tuesday night before going to Mobile to face South Alabama over the weekend. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more baseball coverage thoughout the week.

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