HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Thirty home games and 10 opponents that reached the postseason a season ago highlight the 2017 Southern Miss baseball schedule released Friday by Golden Eagle coach Scott Berry.
The Golden Eagles look to return to the NCAA postseason for a second consecutive season after finishing with a 41-20 overall mark in 2016 to go along with a Conference USA Tournament championship culminating in the school’s 13th NCAA appearance.
“This program plays a difficult schedule each season and this year will be no different,” said Berry. “We are pleased to be able to play 30 home games this year as well as give our fans a chance to see us a couple of times both in the greater Jackson area as well as the Mississippi Gulf Coast this season.”
The squad opens the year at home for the 19th time over the last 20 years, Friday, Feb. 17, against Northeastern in a 4 p.m., contest at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field. The game marks the first of a three-game series against the Huskies as they will be the first of three first-time opponents at The Pete in 2017, which also includes Xavier (March 10-12) and Columbia (March 14-15).
As the Golden Eagles continue through their spring schedule, the teams that they compete against which reached last year’s NCAA Tournament – a total of 23 games – are Tulane (home – March 1, away – April 19), UL Lafayette (away – March 3-5), Xavier, Louisiana Tech (away – March 17-19), Mississippi State (Trustmark Park in Pearl – March 21), South Alabama (home – March 28, away – April 25), Ole Miss (Trustmark Park – April 4, home – April 12), Rice (April 14-16), Florida Atlantic (home – May 5-7) and Southeastern Louisiana (MGM Park – May 16).
Southern Miss plays both Ole Miss and Mississippi State at Trustmark Park again this season and will return to MGM Park for a pair of regular-season games against Nicholls State (Apr. 18) and Southeastern Louisiana.
The Golden Eagles also travel to Tuscaloosa for an early season encounter with Alabama (Feb. 21), face New Orleans twice (away – March 7, home – March 29), while also entertaining C-USA foes Marshall (Mar. 24-26), FIU (Apr. 7-9), Old Dominion (Apr. 21-23) and UAB (May 12-14). The Golden Eagles also play league foes WKU (Mar. 31-Apr. 2) Middle Tennessee (Apr. 28-30) and UTSA (May 18-20).
Following the regular-season series finale at UTSA, the Golden Eagles travel to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the 2017 Conference USA baseball championship, May 24-28, at MGM Park.
2017 Southern Miss Schedule (PDF)
