“We are playing defense consistently. That is one phase of the game, and you can’t win playing one phase of the game,” head coach Scott Berry said. “If we want to win we have to play all three phases of the game to win on a consistent basis.”

The Golden Eagles have not been able to play all three phases of the game at one time on a consistent basis all season. Let’s take a look.

The Golden Eagles started the season out slow with the bats. In February, they hit only .275 without hitting a home run. During this same period, the pitching staff was outstanding. They recorded a 6-3 record as a whole, with a 1.50 ERA in nine games. All you heard from the fans then was the slow start with the bats.

In March the tides turned. The Golden Eagle bats heated up, hitting almost .300 as a team with 12 home runs. The achilles heal in this month was the once stellar pitching staff. The team ERA rose from 1.50 in February to 4.50 in March. The Eagles went 10-8 in the month of March.

In April, the bats cooled back down tremendously. The Golden Eagles hit  .267 with only one home run. The pitching staff was average at best, with a 4.00 ERA.

Defensively the Golden Eagles are third in the conference, five-tenths of a point behind Rice in fielding percentage. This has been the one constant throughout the 2012 campaign.

If the Eagles can find the February pitching form, combined with the March hitting form, they are more than capable of winning the upcoming Conference USA tournament.

The Golden Eagles are looking to make their tenth straight NCAA tournament appearance.

While his success on the mound might be a surprise to some, success on the mound isn’t a stranger to Robbins. He won seven games last spring with a 1.83 ERA, while striking out 99 batters helping George County to the 6A South State finals.

Southern Miss has had trouble finding a number three starter the entire season. Robbins is the fifth different starting pitcher to start a Sunday game for the Golden Eagles. In his two starts he has given up only two earned runs in 10 and 2/3 innings.

Robbins was the winning pitcher today against the Thundering Herd of Marshall, going five innings and giving up one earned run. He added two hits and three RBI’s at the plate.

“We got to a point where we had to put him out there,” coach Scott Berry said. “We had no other choices and he has come through for us.”

The Friday and Saturday starters have been extremely solid all season for the Golden Eagles. Coach Berry had referred to the game three starters this year as a coin toss.

Since last weekend, Berry has a new double sided coin he is tossing and Robbins face is on both sides.

Southern Miss is hitting .286 as a team this season, good for 4th best in the conference, but they are hitting only .241 in conference play. These struggles are found throughout an inconsistent line-up. Senior shortstop, Ashley Graeter (.380 in conference) is the only everyday starter for the Golden Eagles  hitting over the .300 mark in conference play, while only four of nine starters are hitting above .200.

Much of the hitting woes are found in the heart of the Southern Miss lineup. Players that carried the team in the first half of the season have struggled immensely in conference play. Freshman Mason Robbins (.191 in conference) and junior Blake Brown (.185 in conference) have combined for 40 strikeouts in 14 games. The duo has hit the four and five holes in the lineup the majority of the season.

In the last six games, the Golden Eagles have struggled to score runs to say the least. They have scored a total of 9 runs in six games. Luckily the other team has only scored seven runs in comparison. The Golden Eagles have still managed to win four of these six games. They managed a meager six runs in a three game sweep of Memphis last weekend, and only three runs in the first two games of a series with a last place Marshall team this weekend.

On the other hand the defense has been phenomenal making only 12 errors in the first 14 conference games.The Golden Eagles go for the series win in West Virgina against the Thundering Herd today.

One thing is for sure, if Southern Miss expects to make any kind of postseason run, the offense is going to have to pick up the slack.

His senior year in high school, Pierce found himself sitting in the office of the best college football coach in the nation, the little man with the big voice, Nick Saban. Saban wanted him to come kick for the University of Alabama, arguably the top football program in the nation. The only problem; Pierce wanted to play baseball too. Unfortunately for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, this was not a part of the deal.

Pierce went on to accept a baseball scholarship  to Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi and turn down the offer to play Division I college football. He then led the nation in strikeouts for two consecutive seasons for the Bobcats, earning himself All-American honors in consecutive seasons.

After his two years at Jones County, he committed to play baseball for the University of Southern Mississippi. Pierce has looked like an all-american as a Golden Eagle as well.

He started the season as the number four starter for the Golden Eagles. This didn’t last long. He quickly climbed the ladder and is now the number one pitcher, and Friday night starter for the Southern Miss pitching staff. Pierce is in the top five in strikeouts (79), innings pitched (74), wins (6), and earned run average (1.58) in Conference-USA while leading Southern Miss in all four categories.

Pierce is the hottest pitcher in the country right now. He has only given up one earned run in his last 31.1 innings pitched, striking out 42 batters, all in conference play.

I’m sure the Alabama baseball team wishes they would have recruited Pierce out of high school now, but like my mom always said to me, “if ya snooze ya loose.”

And for that Alabama, Southern Miss fans thank you.

They have a brand new head coach, Ellis Johnson, and they lost Austin Davis, a four year starter at quarterback. Who is going to replace Austin Davis?

Davis broke records for passing yards (10,722), TD passes (81), completion percentage (61.6%), and total offense (12,082) in a career. Oh yea, and the man that held these records before Davis went by the name of Brett Favre.

Fast forwarding back to the here and now, the Golden Eagles have a few different quarterback options going into the 2012 season. There is a three-man battle to replace Davis that includes redshirt junior Chris Campbell, redshirt freshman Ricky Lloyd, and redshirt sophomore Arsenio Favor.

The early nod after the Annual Black-Gold game goes to Chris Campbell. Campbell has the most experience, and it has been transparent thus far. He had a solid spring game performance, completing 12 of 18 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown managing to avoid any major mistakes.

Lloyd on the other hand looked mediocre, completing 12 of 24 for 199 yards with no touchdowns. Favor is dealing with a minor knee injury preventing him from playing in the annual spring game.

Incoming true freshman quarterback Anthony Alford is expected to be thrown in the mix when he arrives on campus after his high school graduation. Alford is considered one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in the nation.

There will be no improving on what the Golden Eagles achieved last year as Conference USA champions, but a bowl game and a winning season should be in the future for the 2012 squad. The Golden Eagles have had 18 straight winning seasons and made 10 straight bowl games.

Southern Miss opens the season in Lincoln with Big Ten foe Nebraska, possibly the toughest game on the 2012 schedule.

A year after leading an up-and-coming Southern Mississippi basketball program to its’ first NCAA tournament in more than 20 years, Eustachy decided to take over another up-and-coming program in Colorado State. Eustachy had a record of 142-113 in eight seasons at USM. Southern Miss went 25-9 after being selected to finish last in the Conference USA preseason poll.

Colorado State lost only one game in the 2012 season at home on its way to its first NCAA tournament birth in nine years, that loss was to a Eustachy coached Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles played Colorado State on the way up to the Alaskan Shootout early in the season staying there for a couple of days. Ironically this gave Eustachy and his wife a chance to become familiar with the area, and they loved it.

“It’s the most difficult thing I have ever had to do and I left a great group of guys and an excellent basketball team for another challenge,” Eustachy said. “My wife said she wanted to live up here when I was done coaching, it’s an absolutely gorgeous place to live.”

Eustachy is inheriting a talented CSU team that returns six of its top seven scorers and three all Mountain West performers. His salary will double as the head basketball coach at CSU.

Eustachy raised the Southern Miss basketball program up from the cellar of the Conference USA in his eight year tenure here. He is leaving after two consecutive 20-win seasons and resurrecting a program to a prominence it has not seen in over 20 years.

Eustachy should be thanking The University of Southern Mississippi for a second chance at a career when nobody else would. A career that may have been lost due to his alcohol problems at Iowa State. Without that second chance, who knows where Eustachy would might stand today.

USM also owes Eustachy a thank you as well, he raised a basketball program to a level of prominence that it had not seen in decades. Both owe a thank you to the other, and both benefited from the last eight years spent together.

Southern Miss has already started its look for Eustachy’s successor. Assistant coach Steve Barnes is at the top of the list of coaches to replace Eustachy as head coach.

This leaves six positions on the field and a whole pitching staff to be filled by players with little or no experience at the Division 1 level. Even with this lack of experience some of the Golden Eagles are still helping carry the team this year.

Two of the players keeping the winning tradition alive are first year junior college transfers Blake Brown, and Andrew Pierce. Brown is a power hitting first baseman that has helped anchor the middle of the line up with 6 home runs and 30 RBI’s in the first half of the season. Pierce on the other hand is the Friday starter for a pitching staff that has carried the team at times. He has struck out 39 batters and walked only six in his first six starts while carrying a 2.50 ERA.

Then there is the highly touted freshman class that includes 3rd round draft pick Connor Barron, last year’s MHSAA player of the year Mason Robbins, and redshirt freshman Jake Drehoff.

Barron has maintained a batting average well over .300 the entire season living up to his preseason hype. Robbins has created a formidable 1-2 punch with Brown by leading the Conference-USA in hitting almost the entire season and hitting safely in 18 consecutive games at one point. Drehoff is the team’s number one pitcher and Saturday starter. His 4-0 record and 46 innings pitched lead the team. One of his wins includes a win over a top 10 ranked Rice this weekend going 8 2/3 innings giving up a single run in the 2-1 road win.

These young players are the backbone of this young team. This is a special group of players that will make their mark before they leave USM. As the most highly rated recruiting class to ever step on campus, it is expected.

A deep NCAA tournament run may be in the deck of cards for the Southern Miss baseball program in the near future.

The basketball team isn’t the only team doing their job at home this year. The football team went 6-0 at the Rock on their way to a 12-2 season and a bowl win in Hawaii.

Southern Miss was one of only 11 teams to go undefeated at home in Division 1 basketball, and one of seven in football. The golden eagles stand alone in Division 1 athletics when it comes to going undefeated in both sports. That in itself is amazing.

Mississippi State and Ole Miss paled in comparison to the 21-0 record that Southern Miss accumulated. I think it is officially fair to say that the best programs in the state of Mississippi this year reside in Hattiesburg. Southern Miss is now On Top in the Magnolia state.

Southern Miss took the field for the first time at Pete Taylor field on Friday with a pre-season No. 28 ranking and the number three recruiting class in the nation. Last years share of the Conference USA season crown and the remembrance of the 2009 World Series have set the bar high for this years young, yet talented, team. “I saw some jitters, but they will be ready to go the rest of the way,” Senior Ashley Graeter said of the young guys.

USM averages the 15th largest attendance in the nation with almost 3,500 people a game. This support has created one of the most exciting college baseball atmospheres in the country. Unfortunately, neither one of these mattered as they opened the season with a 5-4 loss at the hands of Nicholls State. Nicholls pitcher Patrick Shreve tweeted after the game, “USM fans are ruthless in the pen(bullpen).” This is a testament to the atmosphere at the “Pete.”

This was the first year I didn’t take the field with a baseball team. As I watch from the other side of the fence, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel coming to the game as a member of the crowd. Somehow I found myself with the same crazed, nervous, and exciting feeling that I felt everyday when playing the game. If you want to be a part of one of the best college baseball atmospheres in the country, wear some black and gold out to the “Pete” this weekend—you will not be disappointed.