Baseball

Sun Belt Baseball Set for Conference-Opening Series

WEEK 1 CONFERENCE NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – With eight teams among the Top 100 of the RPI—led by No. 1 Southern Miss—the Sun Belt looks poised to continue its run as a multi-bid league entering conference play. 
 
Headlining the opening weekend of conference action are a pair of Top 100 RPI matchups—Southern Miss at Arkansas State and South Alabama at Louisiana. 
 
All 21 Sun Belt games this weekend will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN+.
 
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
  • FAMILIAR FACES – Four Sun Belt programs—No. 6 Southern Miss (1 RPI), Louisiana (14 RPI), No. 16 Coastal Carolina (56 RPI) and Troy (67 RPI) enter conference play ranked among the Top 70 in the RPI. Each has represented the conference in at least one NCAA Baseball Regional over the past three seasons­—Southern Miss (3 – 2023, 2024 & 2025), Coastal Carolina (3 – 2023, 2024 & 2025), Louisiana (2 – 2023 & 2024) and Troy (1 – 2023). 
  • IN HIS LANE – Sophomore second baseman Lane Walton—who leads the Sun Belt with an .882 slugging percentage, 67 total bases, three triples, 10 home runs and 30 RBI—will lead Arkansas State (79 RPI) into a three-game Top 100 RPI conference-opening series against No. 6 Southern Miss (1 RPI) this weekend. The Golden Eagles are 15-2 on the year, having won 15 of their last 16 games entering conference play. 
  • K ZONE – Louisiana (14 RPI)—1-of-2 Sun Belt programs with three pitchers that boast 24-or-more strikeouts on the year—will host South Alabama (96 RPI) in a Top 100 RPI conference series this weekend. The Ragin’ Cajuns pitching staff features graduate student lefty Andrew Herrmann (35 strikeouts), freshman righty Sawyer Pruitt (29 strikeouts) and junior righty JR Tollett (24 strikeouts). Behind those arms, Louisiana owns a 13-4 record, including winning 13 of their last 15 games entering conference action. 
  • LOCKDOWN LEFTYS – Two Sun Belt pitchers enter conference play boasting a sub-1.00 ERA, with both hailing from Texas State. Redshirt junior lefty Jesus Tovar (0.36 ERA) and freshman lefty Nolan Moore (0.53 ERA) each rank among the Top 12 in the country over their first four starts of the season. Tovar paces the Sun Belt with four victories, while conceding a conference-low 3.60 hits per nine innings. Moore ranks fourth in the conference, allowing just 4.24 hits per nine innings. The tandem will take the ball for the Bobcats in a road series at ULM to open conference play against a Warhawk lineup hitting a Sun Belt-best .328 with a conference-leading 155 runs scored on the year. 
  • AVENGE TOUR – After dropping three-straight games to autonomy conference opposition, Troy will look to return to form when it hosts Old Dominion for a three-game conference series at Riddle-Pace Field this weekend. The Trojans and Monarchs met on the diamond five times a year ago, with Troy taking 2-of-3 in the regular-season series and the teams splitting two matchups during the Sun Belt Baseball Championship. In its first conference series of the 2026 campaign, Old Dominion will attempt to avenge the loss that ended its 2025 season.  
 
SUN BELT BASEBALL SERIES – WEEK 1
 
 Series  Friday  Saturday  Sunday 
 No. 16 Coastal Carolina at App State  5:00 p.m.  2:00 p.m.  12:00 p.m.
 No. 6 Southern Miss at Arkansas State  6:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 Georgia Southern at James Madison  3:00 p.m.  3:00 p.m.  12:00 p.m.
 South Alabama at Louisiana  6:00 p.m.  2:00 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 Texas State at ULM  6:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 Georgia State at Marshall  5:00 p.m.  3:00 p.m.  12:00 p.m.
 Old Dominion at Troy   6:00 p.m.  3:33 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 
All Times CT