Southern Miss baseball wins 11-straight, beats Mississippi State in Top 10 matchup

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WLBT) - Under the lights at the historic Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg was not just your average midweek college baseball contest, with 5,716 fans packing out the stadium Tuesday night.

“Oh, it was awesome. Electric. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s awesome. I love playing here. I love playing in front of this crowd,” USM shortstop Seth Smith said."

A matchup between No. 10 Southern Miss and No. 4 Mississippi State had the whole nation - not just Mississippians - on their feet as the Golden Eagles topped the Bulldogs 7-6, with USM winning their 11th straight game in arguably the best game of the young 2026 season.

“It was just a great ball game, just a big-time college baseball game right there,” third-year Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said. “They’re really good. And we knew that they were as advertised, and we just had to try to go toe-to-toe with them. I thought our guys did a really good job at that.”

USM began the contest by deploying a freshman, Dylan Causey, on the mound before a Dray Barrett three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning gave the Golden Eagles an early 3-0 lead over State.

Southern Miss increased their lead to 4-0 in the second inning, thanks to a fielding error by Bulldogs shortstop Ryan Woodson before USM’s Smith blasted a homer into the Right Field Roost to extend the lead to 5-0, which was his first long ball of his career.

“I thought it was going foul, Smith said. ”I was like praying itdidn’tgo foul. And I just saw it keep going and going and going, it felt awesome."

A quintet of talented USM bullpen pitchers was able to keep the powerful Mississippi State bats quiet for four innings, having held opponents scoreless for over 18 innings over the last four games. The Bulldogs rank 8th overall in the country in team batting average of .350.

State cut into the lead with three runs in the fifth, which included a two-run double from Noah Sullivan.

Then, Reed Stallman singled to right, driving in Sullivan, but the inning ended when he was thrown out at second trying to take an extra base on his hit, still cutting the USM lead to just two runs.

Mississippi State then took the lead in the seventh after Stallman came up with another single, scoring two Bulldog runners, and Woodson atoning for his earlier mistake with an RBI single to give the Maroon and White a 6-5 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Barrett’s name was called again as he stepped up to the plate for Southern Miss. The third baseman hit a double to right field to put runners on second and third base before Kyle Morrison tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

Barrett then scored on a wild pitch to regain the lead for USM 7-6.

Fast forward to the top of the ninth with a 1-2 count, USM closer Camden Clark slammed the door shut for the Golden Eagles, striking out Woodson to record his fourth save of the season, and had Southern Miss win their fifth consecutive victory over State at Pete Taylor Park.

“Every win matters, every game matters,” Ostrander said. “For us to achieve the things that we want to do, youdon’thave any mulligans and stuff. So, whether you’re playing Mississippi State or whoever you’re playing, they all matter. But to square off against a team like that and to come away with a victory, I think that bodes well for our resume.”

“I had multiple guys while I was on base say, ‘This [Pete Taylor Park] is sick,’” Barrett said. “How many people care and how much they love the sport... so, it’s awesome the crowd that we bring, and even when we don’t play teams like that.”

Ostrander deployed nine pitchers over the span of the contest, with Josh Och earning the win.

Och completed the most innings with just 1.2.

USM will face Nicholls State at home on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

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