HATTIESBURG — Have you ever read a great book that told a riveting story, but the ending left something to be desired?

Well, if you have, or even if you hadn’t, let us introduce you to the 2022 Southern Miss baseball team.

Wow, what a story.

Forty-seven victories, a Conference USA regular season title and a host for both the regional and super regional, the Golden Eagles kept people entertained from its start, February 18, in an 8-1 win over North Alabama, to its finish, June 12, in a home loss to Ole Miss.

The story for this team, though, finished two games from its perfect ending — Omaha and the College World Series.

“Unfortunately, today it ended,” said Southern Miss 13th-year baseball coach Scott Berry of his team’s story when he sat on the dais after the team’s final game to talk about what transpired during the season. “But within the book, there’s a lot of great stories in there.”

Chapter 1 — The Wins

The team won 47 times — tied for second most in school history – which included a school-record 15-straight wins from the end of March until halfway through April. In the midst of these victories, Berry became the school’s all-time leader for wins for the baseball program, surpassing both Corky Palmer (458) and Hill Denson (468) when his team captured a 9-6 triumph at UAB, May 1.

For the fourth time in their history, they recorded 40 wins during the regular season and first time since 2017. The Golden Eagles now hold six-straight, 40-win seasons to their credit for the longest such streak of any Division I baseball program while also enjoying an overall total of 14, 40-win seasons.

This year’s wins did not come easy either. Thirty of their games were decided by one or two runs with the Golden Eagles going 19-11 in those contests. 

Chapter 2 — Final Hoorah in C-USA 

The Golden Eagles opened their final season of Conference USA play by jumping out front early in the league standings. They never lost that top spot over the 10-week schedule to capture the C-USA regular season title for the sixth time since joining the league in 1996 and fifth time under Berry.

Southern Miss won the regular season crown by three games, the largest winning spread since the Golden Eagles won the league by six games over second place Old Dominion in 2017.

The program also won its third crown over its final five C-USA regular seasons and collected at least 20 or more league victories in each of their final six campaigns.

Pete Taylor Park, which served as the venue for the first-ever C-USA Tournament, also played host to the school’s final league tournament this May, for a league-record seventh time. The state of Mississippi called the league championship home 12 times during the Golden Eagles’ run in the league.

While the Golden Eagles did not win the event, they did go 2-2 in the tournament. They are the only school to win at least one game in every C-USA Tournament and their 60 victories in the event is the most of any league institution, past or present. 

Chapter 3 — Winning The Regional

While the Golden Eagles knew they were in the field of 64 for the 2022 NCAA Tournament, they weren’t sure if they would play at home. Sunday night, May 29, just after 7:30 p.m., social media let the Golden Eagles and the entire world know that they would indeed be one of the 16 regional hosts.

Of course, Southern Miss had played host two times prior — in 2003 and 2017 — and had not been able to survive coming out of the tournament. This year, something felt different.

After a 2-0 shutout of Army West Point to open the regional, the Golden Eagles fell to LSU the next night, losing a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth before falling in 10 innings to the Tigers and into the loser’s bracket.

The Golden Eagles now faced a formidable task of winning three games over the next 27 hours. The first assignment ended in a 4-3, 10-inning victory over Kennesaw State in an elimination game that saw Christopher Sargent collect a game-winning RBI single.

LSU again was up next. This time the Golden Eagles, and their fans, were ready.

The Golden Eagle fan base helped keep their team in stride with its patented “Throw it in the Dirt” chant to its razzing of “One, Two, Three. AHHHHHHHH!!!!” of one Tiger reliever, allowing the Pete Taylor Park faithful to ride that wave to an 8-4 win in forcing a deciding game. On championship Monday, in a game that went back-and-forth, Danny Lynch drove in the game’s final run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to break a deadlocked score and the Golden Eagles advanced to the super regionals with an 8-7 triumph. 

Chapter 4 — The Super Regional

The Golden Eagles regional victory, coupled with Ole Miss winning the Miami Regional, allowed Southern Miss to be able to hold its first ever super regional at its home park and also proved to be the first all-Mississippi super, assuring the Magnolia State one entry into the final eight teams for a chance at a national championship.

While the Golden Eagles came up short, it got to showcase its program, its ballpark and its fans to the entire nation through a national televised audience.

The fantasy ending did not happen for the team from Hattiesburg that weekend, but its participants provided many wonderful details to help provide a wonderful story.

“Winning that regional, after having lost to LSU on that Saturday night, and understanding that challenge that was at hand and trying to take it one game at a time to win three to get where we are today,” said Berry after the final game of the year. “Our guys answered that bell. And then doing something this program has never done, that’s hosting a super regional. Our program continues to grow and our fan base continues to grow.”

Epilogue — The Characters of the Story

Behind the starting pitching trio of Tanner Hall, Hurston Waldrep and Hunter Riggins, the program collected a school-record 746 strikeouts, which included 46 games of 10 or more strikeouts by the staff.

The Golden Eagle offense belted 82 home runs — only the second time in its history that they have recorded 80 or more homers in consecutive seasons — with five hitting 10 or more round-trippers. It marked the first time since 1998 that five different players had double-digit homers, led by Sargent’s 21.

The year ended the career of five-year sensation Gabe Montenegro. The Guatemalan native, who made Hattiesburg his adopted home, ended his career tops at the school in games played (260), at bats (1,020), singles (243), second in hits (319) and third in runs (211).

The year saw the Golden Eagles enjoy their highest poll rankings including as high as No. 3 in Perfect Game, No. 4 in D1Baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, No. 5 in the coaches’ poll and No. 6 in Baseball America.

Pete Taylor Park shattered home attendance records for a game, a three-game series and for a season with its top game of 6,346 coming against Ole Miss in May during the regular season.

Over the journey, which began last August with a dream, and ended on a brutally hot June afternoon on its own field, Southern Miss baseball’s story just ran out of pages.

But, it still was a heck of a story. And everyone is chomping at the bit for the sequel.