Southern Miss baseball coach Christian Ostrander announced Wednesday his coaching and administrative staff for the 2024 season.

Ostrander announced the hiring of assistant coach Ladd Rhodes as well as Carly Mauldin as the team’s Director of Operations. Keller Bradford earned the promotion to assistant coach along with both Travis Creel and Ben Brewer, while former Golden Eagle player Danny Lynch transitions in the team’s graduate assistant coach.

Rhodes returns to Southern Miss after spending the last two seasons at Nicholls State as hitting coach and recruiting coordinator, where the team made NCAA postseason play this past spring for the first time since 1998. The Colonels finished this past season with a .289 team batting average, marking the highest mark for the program since the 2010 campaign. His responsibilities will include hitting, outfielders as well as recruiting coordinator for the Golden Eagles.

Before joining the Colonels, Rhodes served on the Charleston Southern staff as an assistant coach throughout the 2021 season, overseeing the development of the Buccaneers hitters and working primarily with the program’s outfielders. The year prior, he acted as the volunteer assistant coach at Southern Miss for the 2020 campaign where he managed the outfielders and coordinated the Eagles’ base-running efforts. Rhodes also organized all baseball camps and showcases for the program.

Previously, Rhodes handled the hitting, base-running and outfield coaching duties at Jones College for three seasons from 2016-19, structuring the Bobcats’ strength and conditioning efforts as he personally designing both the in-season and offseason workouts while accompanying the team during every on-campus workout.

Initially, Rhodes received his first crack at coaching as a graduate assistant at Jones College during the 2014 season, assisting a team that eventually tied the school record for wins, won the MACJC South Division, the MACJC Tournament and hosted the Region 23 Tournament.

Before working to earn his graduate degree, Rhodes managed to compile a successful collegiate career across two separate programs, competing his first two seasons at Jones College before wrapping up his eligibility at Southland member Southeastern Louisiana. While with the Bobcats, the program captured two South Division titles, a state championship and the school’s first ever appearance in the NJCAA DII World Series. The 2011 squad even set a school record for wins and finished national runner-up as Rhodes earned second team All-MACJC, batting .345 with 20 stolen bases.

During his two-year stint competing for the Lions during the 2012 and 2013 campaigns, the Gulfport, Miss. native served as a key member of a competitive SLU program which secured back-to-back berths in Southland Conference Tournament, clinching All-SLC Tournament honors during both postseason appearances.

Rhodes received a Bachelor of General Studies from Southeastern Louisiana in 2013 along with a Master of Science in Sports Management from Southern Mississippi in 2017. He and wife, Beverly, have a daughter, Molly.

Mauldin comes back to Southern Miss after serving as an assistant coach on the Gulf Coast Community College staff after dazzling performances as a player at the high school, college and professional levels.

She spent the last previous two years as an assistant coach at Southern Miss, where she helped lead the Golden Eagles to their first division championship and second appearance in the conference title game.

Southern Miss won its first Conference USA West Division championship in fall 2021. The Golden Eagles advanced to the C-USA championship game.

Mauldin, who is originally from Laurel, played at West Jones High School. She helped take the Mustangs to the state championship game that year, then Mauldin went on to lead the school to three Class 5A state championships. She was named All-District six times.

She played collegiately at Mississippi State, where she was a star midfielder from 2015-18. She started all 72 games, which ranks seventh in school history, and her 6,545 minutes are the fifth-most. She was named to Mississippi State’s All-Time Team selected in 2019. Mauldin earned All-SEC Second Team and NCSAA All-Region Third Team honors in 2018. That year she was the Bulldogs’ captain and led MSU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance.

Mauldin moved to Finland to play professionally, where she won Female Player of the Year of the Kakkonen League in 2019. She started coaching in 2017 as a youth coach for Next Level Training in Detroit, Mich., and did that for two summers.

Mauldin has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a concentration in clinical exercise physiology from Mississippi State. She earned spots on the Bulldog Honor Roll and MSU’s Academic Honor Roll each semester from spring 2015 to fall 2018 and won spots on the SEC Academic Honor Roll three years. She is engaged to Todd Makovicka, a strength and conditioning coach at Southern Miss.

Bradford starts his first year on the field after holding the role of Director of Player Development/Operations the last two seasons for the Golden Eagles. He returned to his alma mater for the 2022 campaign after spending the previous two seasons at Hinds Community College. His responsibilities will include assisting with pitchers and recruiting.

Another former Golden Eagle, Creel, returns for his fifth season with program as a Golden Eagle assistant coach as he saw the program continue to make strides offensively, including a team batting average of .283 this season with 88 home runs and 458 runs scored. That was the most runs scored by the program since the 2018 campaign. It also marked the only time in school history the team finished with 80 or more homers for a third straight season. His coaching role includes being the primary hitting coach, as well as working with infielders to go along with recruiting.

Brewer also returns for his third season on the Golden Eagle coaching staff, after two seasons at Southern Illinois-Carbondale. Brewer served as the volunteer the last two seasons where he assisted with Golden Eagle hitting and was the first-base coach, while overseeing the Golden Eagle camps. His time will focus on overseeing player development as well as with hitting, catchers and on-campus recruiting.

Lynch, whose 268 games played is the most ever as a Golden Eagle player, will work with hitters, infielders and on-campus recruiting.