With the regular season complete and postseason play set to begin, the Sun Belt Conference announced its annual baseball awards Monday, with several Southern Miss Golden Eagles earning recognition.
Head coach Christian Ostrander was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year after leading Southern Miss to a 40-14 overall record and 22-8 league mark during the regular season. That was good enough to earn the Sun Belt regular-season title and mark the 10th consecutive season (excluding the COVID-shortened season) that the program has nabbed 40 or more wins.
Sophomore lefty Grayden Harris was named Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year for a stat line that includes an 8-1 record with a 3.10 ERA. He leads the team in both strikeouts (93) and innings pitched (78.1). In addition to the individual honor, Harris was naturally placed on the All-Sun Belt first team.
Joining Harris on the first team were fellow starting pitcher Camden Clark, first baseman Matthew Russo, second baseman Kyle Morrison, and outfielder Davis Gillespie. Relief pitcher Colby Allen was named to the second team.
Clark joined Southern Miss’s rotation midway through the year and has thrived. Adding in his bullpen work, the sophomore has an 8-0 record with five saves across 21 appearances, five of which have been starts.
Russo, a senior, has started every game for Southern Miss this season, posting a .313 batting average with 10 home runs, 12 doubles, and a team-best 50 RBI. Three of those RBI have been game-winning.
Morrison, a senior transfer from South Alabama, has enjoyed his lone season in the black and gold. He has a .322 average with a team-best 15 home runs and 45 RBI. He also leads the team in on-base percentage (.427). Like Russo, Morrison has started every game.
Gillespie finished the regular season with a team-best .324 batting average with 12 home runs, 12 doubles, one triple, and 43 RBI. The redshirt junior has been especially productive in league play, batting .353. Gillespie is also an iron man of sorts, joining Russo and Morrison as Golden Eagles to not miss an outing.
Allen, who was moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen, kept his footing and filled out the stat sheet with a 5-1 record, a 2.48 ERA, and two saves. The senior appeared in 21 games, including five starts, and fanned 77 batters across 61.2 innings.
The Golden Eagles are fielding this week as the 1-seed in the Sun Belt Tournament in Montgomery, Ala. Their first game is Wednesday at 4 p.m. against the lowest-seeded first round winner. The full bracket can be found here.
