Regional Week: Southern Miss Rises in Rankings; Coach Oz 'Excited' for Home Advantage

Although the Golden Eagles didn't secure a national seed from the NCAA selection committee, the guys at D1Baseball still moved them up a spot ahead of regional play. Regardless, Coach Oz is excited to be back at The Pete this weekend.

Josh House

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – When Selection Monday rolled around, the NCAA committee announced the Southern Miss baseball team as the No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament, meaning the Golden Eagles missed out on a top-8 national seed by just one spot.

Southern Miss will still host a Hattiesburg Regional this weekend, but attaining a national seed would've guaranteed a chance to host a Hattiesburg Super Regional if the Golden Eagles advanced past the regional round.

Regardless, securing the No. 9 seed is an impressive accomplishment for this Golden Eagles ballclub, especially when considering the midseason lull it fought through to get back to the level it's currently playing at.

Southern Miss not only chased down Coastal Carolina in the standings to win the Sun Belt regular-season championship outright, but it also went 4-1 in Montgomery last week to secure its third Sun Belt tournament championship in four years.

Eags Rise to No. 7 in the Rankings

@SouthernMissBSB

Although the NCAA selection committee didn't think the Golden Eagles had done quite enough to be a top-8 seed, the guys over at D1Baseball appear to disagree, given how their latest Top-25 national rankings for Regional Week look. After having Southern Miss ranked at No. 8 for the last several weeks, D1 bumped the Black and Gold up one spot to No. 7 ahead of regional play.

In the grand scheme of things, these national rankings have no ties to what the NCAA committee will end up doing on selection day, but it's still a good indicator of how your team is viewed by the national media. For now, the Golden Eagles couldn't care less about missing out on a national seed and are just extremely excited to be playing baseball at Pete Taylor Park this weekend in Hattiesburg.

Coach Oz Excited for Hattiesburg Regional Challenge

Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander became the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 wins earlier this season. | @SouthernMissBSB

In a post-selection show press conference on Monday, Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander talked about the quality of his team's opponents in this upcoming regional, as well as how much of an advantage it is to be playing at home.

"Excited about the field," Coach Oz said of the Golden Eagles hosting Virginia, Jacksonville State and Little Rock in a stacked Hattiesburg Regional this weekend. "Any team you play from here on out is high quality. They can beat you. It's gonna be a competitive field for sure. Whoever it was coming, we just knew we'd have to worry about ourselves and play good baseball."

"It's a tremendous advantage being able to play at home for a regional than having to go on the road. The biggest advantage is Pete Taylor Park, the crowd, The Roost, The 16oz Lounge, the fans. ... It's gonna be exciting, and it's gonna be crazy, and we're gonna have some fun with it."

Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more USM baseball coverage throughout the week ahead of the Hattiesburg Regional.