Southern Miss Drops in NCAA Baseball Rankings After Series Loss to Arkansas State

Despite dropping, the Golden Eagles are still getting some love in the national rankings, but to get back to where they were, they will need a big week this week to make up for their Sun Belt opening series loss in Jonesboro.

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Last week got off to a fiery start for Southern Miss, as it took down a talented Ole Miss ballclub at Pete Taylor Park in a classic pitchers' duel, 2-1. However, trouble arrived over the weekend, as the Golden Eagles stumbled in their Sun Belt series opener, losing two out of the three games to Arkansas State in Jonesboro.

Overall, the Golden Eagles are still in great shape, with a 16-4 record, the second-highest strength of schedule, and the highest RPI in the nation. However, going 2-2 last week did result in some slippage in the national rankings.

Eags Drop Across The Board

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On Monday, Baseball America, which has been more down on the Golden Eagles than any other polls so far this season, dropped them from No. 10 to No. 16 while moving the Red Wolves into the Top 25 at No. 22.

Perfect Game, which ranked Southern Miss highest among all polls last week at No. 6, dropped the Golden Eagles to No. 12 this week.

D1Baseball, which had the Golden Eagles at No. 7 going into last week, also dropped them down to No. 12 this week.

USM Needs a Bounce-Back Week with Fewer Self-Inflicted Errors

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In the grand scheme of things, these weekly rankings don't matter nearly as much to the teams as they do to the fan bases. But even with that being the case, Southern Miss needs a big bounce-back week to prove that last weekend was just a hiccup and not a bigger problem.

As good as Arkansas State is, one could argue that the Golden Eagles beat themselves in Sunday's 5-2 rubber match loss. In the bottom of the first inning, the Red Wolves were gifted a 3-0 early lead due to two errors and a wild pitch by Southern Miss. Although USM fought back to make it interesting at the end, those early mistakes proved too much to overcome.

The Golden Eagles batted just .225 over the weekend while striking out 29 times at the plate. They were also just 6-of-23 with runners in scoring position.

The Week Ahead

Camden Sunstrom takes the mound for Southern Miss vs. Nicholls. / @SouthernMissBSB

This week, Southern Miss will take on Nicholls in Biloxi on Tuesday night, looking to avenge a 3-2 loss at The Pete from a few weeks ago. Overall, Nicholls has defeated Southern Miss in three of its last four matchups dating back to 2024, so the Golden Eagles will have to exorcise some demons to get back in the win column.

Then, this coming weekend, Sun Belt play resumes, as Southern Miss takes on Troy at Pete Taylor Park starting Friday at 6 p.m. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more baseball coverage over the course of this week.