Southern Miss Assistant Coach Dishes on Team's 'Snakebit' Batting Struggles

Golden Eagles assistant coach Travis Creel believes his team's early-season batting struggles will be short-lived.

Matthew Russo awaits a pitch in the top of the seventh inning of Southern Miss' win over Baylor during the Round Rock Classic. / Dalton Trigg

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – When a team starts a season winning 17 of its first 21 games, there's not going to be too many things for the players, the coaching staff, or even the fan base to complain about. However, for No. 12 Southern Miss, one area that could be improved is the team's batting.

After leading the Sun Belt with an overall team batting average of .301 last season, the Golden Eagles are currently 10th in the conference so far this season, batting just .264. Despite that, Southern Miss is still second in the conference in home runs (28), and there are signs of the Golden Eagles potentially breaking out of their hitting funk sooner rather than later.

On Wednesday, Southern Miss assistant coach Travis Creel joined the SuperTalk Eagle Hour to talk about his team's batting struggles and how he's confident in his guys figuring it out.

Eags 'Snakebit' Lately at the Plate

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"We're in a unique spot right now," Creel said. "I feel like the past four or five games, (we've) kinda had inconsistent at-bats, and then when we do hit the ball really hard, it feels like it goes right to somebody or they make a diving play or rob a homer. ... So (we're) kinda snakebit right now, I feel like, but this is game where you certainly can't feel sorry for yourself.

"This game is ruthless and doesn't care how you're feeling about yourself. That's why you gotta be mentally tough to play this game, especially to be a hitter. I think we have good players who are taking decent swings. We're gonna come out of this."

Just from a "law of averages" standpoint, one would have to assume that better hitting numbers are coming the Golden Eagles' way as this season progresses. Senior first baseman Matthew Russo, for example, is currently batting .232 after batting .290 during his junior year. However, he's been taking much better swings over the last few games, and in a 4-0 win over Nicholls on Tuesday night in Biloxi, he was about two feet short of hitting a three-run bomb to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Coaches Continue to Preach Confidence

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"Our main goal is to get 'em confident, to keep their confidence. We say it all the time: 'If you're not confident, you're out.' It's easy to lose confidence in this game. Like I said, it's ruthless. You can do everything right and get out," Creel said.

"That's why you can't be a prisoner of the outcome. You gotta kinda be process oriented, worry about swinging at the right pitches, worry about getting your best swing off and just letting the ball fall where it may. You can't hang your hat on results, because even though you do some things right sometimes, you don't get results. If you're worried about your batting average, worried about results, it will humble you pretty quick. You just gotta stay confident, keep working. We're obviously just gonna keep working. ... I'm very confident that these guys will get going."

Creel has every right to be as confident as he is in his team eventually breaking out of its hitting funk, as the Golden Eagles' overall batting average has increased every season since he was hired in 2019. At the end of the day, Southern Miss is 17-4 and ranked No. 12 in the nation despite not batting up to its abilities. Imagine what the team will look like when they flip that switch.

You can listen to the entire SuperTalk Eagle Hour segment with Creel below, where he also touches on the team's batting challenges against left-handed pitchers, specifically. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more baseball coverage throughout the weekend as Southern Miss welcomes Troy to Pete Taylor Park.

SuperTalk Eagle Hour 3/18/2026 https://t.co/8HFCgL7TkN via @supertalk

— SuperTalk Eagle Hour (@USMEagleHour) March 18, 2026