NEW ORLEANS — Southern Miss advanced to its second-straight NCAA Baseball Super Regional after claiming the Auburn Regional title via an 11-7 winner-take-all victory over Penn on Monday.
The Golden Eagles are the first Sun Belt program to advance to a Super Regional since Louisiana did so in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015. When Southern Miss takes the field against Tennessee this weekend, it will be the sixth all-time Super Regional appearance by a Sun Belt program since the format was adopted in 1999.
No. 10 overall seed Coastal Carolina also advanced to the regional final—giving the Sun Belt a pair of regional finalists for the second-straight season—but fell to Duke, 12-3, in Monday’s finale.
Each of the Sun Belt’s four postseason representatives recorded a victory in NCAA Baseball Regional play for the second-straight year.
Sun Belt tournament champion Southern Miss dropped its regional opener 4-2 to Samford, but battled through the loser’s bracket with four-straight victories in elimination games over No. 13 overall seed Auburn, 7-2; Samford, 9-4; Penn, 11-2; and Penn, 11-7, to advance in its 19th all-time and seventh-straight NCAA appearance.
Sun Belt regular-season champion Coastal Carolina also overcame an 11-10 regional-opening loss to Rider with three-straight wins in elimination games over UNCW, 12-2; Rider, 13-5; and Duke, 8-6, to force a winner-take-all game in the Conway Regional on Monday. There the regional host Chanticleers ran out of steam against Duke, falling 12-3, to conclude their 19th all-time NCAA appearance and fourth in the last five events.
Sun Belt tournament runner-up Louisiana fell to Texas, 4-2, in its regional opener, but picked up a 19-10 win over Maine in its second game in the Coral Gables Regional. The Ragin’ Cajuns then succumbed to No. 9 overall seed Miami, 8-5, to close out their 18th all-time and second-straight NCAA appearance.
In its 22nd all-time NCAA appearance and first since 2018, Troy was the lone Sun Belt team to win its regional opener—11-10 over Boston College. The Trojans then dropped back-to-back contests to No. 16 overall seed Alabama, 11-8, and Boston College, 4-1, to be eliminated from the Tuscaloosa Regional.
For the second-straight season and the fifth time since 2000, four Sun Belt baseball programs represented the conference in NCAA Baseball Regionals. The Sun Belt has been a multi-bid conference in 28-of-34 seasons since 1989.
Sun Belt baseball programs have now earned 21 NCAA berths over the past 10 seasons. In each of the past two campaigns, the Sun Belt was 1-of-5 conferences with four-or-more teams in the NCAA field, joining the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12.
All four Sun Belt postseason representatives reached the 40-win plateau—Southern Miss (45-18), Coastal Carolina (42-21), Louisiana (41-24) and Troy (40-22)—with the Golden Eagles looking to add to that tally in their second-straight Super Regional appearance this weekend.
Regional Most Outstanding Player
Dustin Dickerson, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
All-Regional Teams
Zack Beach, Coastal Carolina – Conway Regional
Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina – Conway Regional
Graham Brown, Coastal Carolina – Conway Regional
Payton Eeles, Coastal Carolina – Conway Regional
Riley Eikhoff, Coastal Carolina – Conway Regional
Kyle DeBarge, Louisiana – Coral Gables Regional
Heath Hood, Louisiana – Coral Gables Regional
Carson Roccaforte, Louisiana – Coral Gables Regional
Dustin Dickerson, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Tanner Hall, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Danny Lynch, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Nick Monistere, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Rodrigo Montenegro, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Carson Paetow, Southern Miss – Auburn Regional
Caleb Bartolero, Troy – Tuscaloosa Regional
Donovan Whibbs, Troy – Tuscaloosa Regional