University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagles Enjoy First Full Day in Omaha
6/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 12, 2009
• College World Series Central
OMAHA, Neb. - The rain came down for much of the day here Friday, but it certainly did not dampen the spirits of the Southern Miss baseball team.
The school, which is making its first trip to the College World Series in baseball, soaked up the atmosphere at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium - the home for this event for the 60th consecutive year.
The Golden Eagles arrived at the stadium just before 3 p.m., and were greeted with heavy rain at the stadium. That did not deter the squad from taking the team photo in front of the College World Series statue in front of the stadium.
The team then went inside the stadium to find cover from the rain in the grandstands where they were descended upon by the many youngsters that were at the park during the day for the schedule activities at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Southern Miss players had an informal autograph signing party in the stands where fans from all over got a chance to meet the team. They then participated in one later in the day that saw over 200 in line for player autographs.
The rain stopped shortly before the Golden Eagles were to hold their one-hour practice session at 4 p.m. Southern Miss hitters went into the hitting cages while the pitchers jogged on the warning track and gave a few high-fives to fans in the bleachers as they were jogging from foul line to foul line.
Earlier in the day, coach Corky Palmer, who announced his retirement Apr. 30, at the conclusion of the season went through a press conference with the other seven head coaches.
Palmer opened his press conference talking about bringing his final team here to play for the national championship.
"It's an honor and a privilege to bring a team to Omaha for the first time," Palmer said. "It sure was a tale of a bunch of season for us. We thought we had talent, but we had so many new starters and I think it took a long time for them to mesh with the rest of the team. Then, the guys decided that they were going to get it done."
The magical run for the Golden Eagles over the last three weeks include reaching the Conference USA title game, before winning its first regional at Georgia Tech and then sweeping Florida in its first Super Regional to get to this point.
Southern Miss opens the College World Series, Sunday, June 14, against No. 1 national seed Texas, at 6 p.m. The game can be seen live on ESPN 2, as well as be heard on the Southern Miss ISP Sports Network.
