Home series vs. Mississippi State, Rice highlight 2018 Southern Miss baseball schedule

Southern Miss baseball coach Scott Berry announced Wednesday the schedule for the team’s 2018 season, which includes 27 home games, a return trip to Pensacola for the Cox Diamond Invitational and a tournament appearance in the Stephen F. Austin event.

The Golden Eagles look to build upon last season in which they established a school record for victories (50), captured a Conference USA regular season title and hosted their second-ever regional in which they made it to the finals.

The 27-game home schedule includes a three-game, season-opening series against Mississippi State (Feb. 16-18) in the Mississippi Farm Bureau Classic, as well as three-game a non-conference home series against Georgia Southern (Mar. 9-11).

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Other non-conference home dates include Southern (Mar. 20), Louisiana-Lafayette for a two-game midweek set (Apr. 3-4), South Alabama (Apr. 24), Tulane (May 1) and New Orleans (May 15).

More:Complete Southern Miss baseball schedule

The Golden Eagles also welcome C-USA foes UTSA (Mar. 16-18), Rice (Mar. 30-Apr. 1), WKU (Apr. 6-8), Middle Tennessee (Apr. 20-22) and Louisiana Tech (May 11-13) to Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

For the third time in the last four seasons, Southern Miss also returns to Pensacola, Fla., for the Cox Diamond Invitational where they will play Eastern Michigan (Mar.2), Ohio State (Mar. 3) and Nicholls (Mar. 4). In addition, the Golden Eagles will travel to Nacogdoches, Texas, for a tournament at Stephen F. Austin (Feb. 23-25). The opponents are still being set for that event.

Other road non-conference tilts for the Golden Eagles include South Alabama (Feb. 20), New Orleans (Feb. 27), Alabama (Mar. 7), Tulane (Mar. 14), Ole Miss (Mar. 27) in Oxford and then at Trustmark Park in Pearl (Apr. 10) and Southeastern Louisiana (Apr. 17).

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The squad travels to Florida Atlantic (Mar. 23-25), FIU (Apr. 13-15), Old Dominion (Apr. 27-29), UAB (May 4-6) and Marshall (May 17-19) for their road league series.

The top eight teams from the C-USA regular season will then meet at MGM Park, May 23-27, for the league’s baseball championship tournament. It will be the second-straight year that that venue has played host to the event.

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