Southern Miss Baseball Honors local military with special Camp Shelby jerseys

For a second straight year, Military Appreciation Day at Pete Taylor Park honored soldiers from Camp Shelby who played on the post’s all-star baseball team during the war. With the Southern Miss baseball team wearing the specialty jerseys during Saturday’s 2-1 walk off victory against UNC-Wilmington on Saturday. The jerseys were a similar design to the ones used by a team of the best players stationed at Camp Shelby. The ones used Saturday were the ones used during 1944 when the Camp Shelby baseball team was one of the best military baseball teams in the country.

The Golden Eagles began the tradition in 2024 of wearing the jerseys. They won in ease that game with a 13-3, 8 inning victory of UL-Monroe. They followed that up in 2025 beating UNC-Wilmington 2-1, despite being down 1-0 most of the game. Kros Sively pitched a solid 7 innings of work, despite giving an early run in the 2nd. The Seahawks held onto their 1-0 lead until the seventh inning when Southern Miss finally broke through. The Golden Eagles tied the game with a run in the seventh, setting the stage for a dramatic finish.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Matthew Russo stepped up to the plate and delivered a leadoff home run, walking it off for the Golden Eagles winning 2-1. The win improved the Golden Eagles’ record to 10-5, while the Seahawks fell to 8-7.