In two weeks Southern Miss will be back at it as the regular-season begins against Murray State. Today Scott Berry and select players met with media members to give insight on what to expect from the 2020 season. Here are a few takeaways from the media day.
Everyone is excited about the new turf
The first takeaway is not who is on the field but the field itself. Throughout the off-season Southern Miss made a big investment spending more than one million dollars on new artificial turf. Berry believes it is worth every penny, as do the players who have begun to practice on the new surface.
“It plays so much better. It also takes away a lot of the negatives that we have had to deal with like it getting so wet and then being out of commission for a couple of days. Monday we got rained out, but we had no concerns that we would be back out on the field the next day. That’s been a lot different than in years past,” said Matthew Guidry.
Berry described his excitement as, “moving into a new house” when asked about the field.
“The new surface we have out there is second to none. The guys absolutely love it,” said Berry, “The big selling point of that field was development. Part of that development was letting guys be able to come out and utilize it on their own without us under the time restraints we have.”
Embrace the single, not the home run dinger
Berry was adamant that the offense would look much different on the season since nearly all of the home run production from 2019 is gone. Berry described the offense as coming along two weeks away from the season opener.
“We are going to be a different team in the way that we will need to manufacture runs. The on-base percentage is going to be crucial for us. Cutting out strikeouts is going to be crucial. In years past, we could kind of live with a strikeout because we had a chance to blow the yard and make up for it. We are going to have to be ultra-competitive this season offensively. You will likely see more hitting and running. We are going to have to move runners and get guys in scoring position. We will have to embrace the single more than the double or home run. I hope I’m wrong, but that is what I see at this point and that is what I’m gearing our guys towards,” said Berry.
This could be the best pitching staff as a whole Southern Miss has had in recent memory
While a guy like Nick Sandlin is not on the roster, Berry is confident in the arms he has a whole that returns to action in 2020.
“Not only do we return nine guys who have experience from last season with just shy of 300 innings that return on the mound, but I like some of these newcomers we have. Both freshman guys and junior college guys. For the most part, I feel like it is the most depth we have had in a staff. It isn’t a vanilla staff, meaning where everyone looks the same. We have different options and different looks that we can go to throughout the game. I’ve been pleased with the progress of the staff,” explained Berry.
Berry did mention that he has not named a Friday night starter, but has an idea. He stated it was due to the depth that he feels he has along with wanting to have a bit more competition since having a few more scrimmages before the regular season begins.
