COLLIN CARGILL, southern mississippi golden eagles

Like a lying politician's pants, Southern Miss caught on fire at the end of 2009 to earn their first ever trip to the College World Series. After needing an impressive showing in the Conference USA tournament just to secure an at-large NCAA Regional bid, the Golden Eagles kept on winning, ultimately posting victories in twelve out of fifteen games as they rambled on to Omaha. Unfortunately, USM's time in Nebraska was a short one. They were ousted early in the tournament, but nonetheless the season was an unprecedented success.

The Eagles suffered a number of major offensive losses when the last out was made, but don't count them out in 2010. Southern Miss is more determined than ever to return to Rosenblatt and finish their season with a dogpile on the pitcher's mound rather than a slow walk back to the bus. If USM is able to duplicate their run, Hattiesburg's own, Collin Cargill will certainly be a big part of their success. Like the Eagles, Cargill came out of nowhere last season and posted breakout numbers. As USM's closer Cargill was unstoppable as the season reached its crescendo. He saved both wins over Georgia Tech in the NCAA Atlanta Regional as well as both games over Florida in the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional. During the road to Omaha, Cargill allowed just one run and four hits in four games and pushed his season save total to thirteen. Especially impressive considering the year before his ERA was a robust 6.50 and he walked 39 batters in only 36 innings.

Considering USM's incredible run to the CWS last season and Collin's breakout performance on the diamond, Cargill shot to the top of the list of players to Ping!Baseball wanted to talk baseball with:

Ping!Baseball: I understand that you're a New Orleans Saints fan. Was it hard to root for the Saints when Hattiesburg 's most famous resident Brett Favre was playing against them?

Cargill: It was. I felt bad for him at the end of the game when he was all down, but at the end I'm a Saints fan so I was happy they made it.

Ping!Baseball: Your first season on the mound you had over a walk an inning and an ERA of 6.50. Last year you practically cut both those numbers in half, finished just out of the top ten nationally in saves and were a big reason USM made it to Omaha . That's quite the turnaround. Was there anything in particular that led to your dramatic increase in effectiveness?

Cargill: I think experience had a lot to do with it. They gave me a lot of experience my first year as I got thrown into the fire a lot. That helped in making the adjustments and cutting down the walks and getting more strikeouts.

Ping!Baseball: How does pitching in your hometown of Hattiesburg effect your game?

Cargill: It makes it a lot easier. That's one of the reasons I signed here: to pitch in my hometown and in front of my home crowd and the people who grew up watching me. I grew up in Hattiesburg and had lot of people come to my games who saw me pitch at Hattiesburg High. That's a lot of the reason I came here and I think it makes it easier to pitch.

Ping!Baseball: In a season full of memorable moments, was there any that stood out more than any other for you?

Cargill: The Tulane game during the conference tournament in first game; that's our big rival and we beat them pretty bad. We beat them like 15-2 or something like that. That was a moment when we started to grow as a team and came together. Beating a rival like that - who we'd lost to two out of three during the season - and they had beat us pretty bad too - for us to come out there and beat them like that, we realized we can do this.

Ping!Baseball: What impact did Coach Palmer's retirement announcement contribute to the teams' success and run to the College World Series last season?

Cargill: It had a little bit to do with it, but we still knew that we had to go out there and win. We couldn't think about his retirement and what he meant to us and everything like that. It definitely had something to do with it, we were playing for him. We wanted him to go out on a good note, but in the end we were just trying to make a statement for this university.

Ping!Baseball: How has the transition to Coach Berry's regime been working out so far?

Cargill: It's been great. There really hasn't been any transition. He's been here the whole time and he was the voice during practice and motivated us the most, so there hasn't been much of a transition.

Ping!Baseball: Going back to the CWS topic, Southern Miss brought a sizeable contingent to Omaha for the event and consistently has one of the top drawing baseball venues in the nation. How much of an impact do your fans have in the games?

Cargill: A big time impact. During the Regionals and Super Regionals our fans were a lot louder than the fans from the teams where we went to. The Georgia Tech coach called out their fans in the newspaper telling them that they needed to be louder than the Southern Miss fans. They contribute a lot to our success.

Ping!Baseball: Several seniors critical to the team's unprecedented success in 2009 finished their collegiate careers when the last out was made. What's the early outlook for the 2010 edition of the Eagle offense?

Cargill: I think we have a lot great freshman and JUCO's that came in to fill those holes. We have B.A. ( Vollmuth ) who filled in great for (Brian) Dozier when he went down, he's gonna be back. We're gonna miss James (Ewing) and Bo (Davis) definitely, but we have some good guys who looked good during the fall and I think they are going to contribute.

Ping!Baseball: Do you have any pregame rituals or superstitions?

Cargill: I always do the same thing before every game. I listen to music and come down before anyone else. In the first inning I sit in one particular spot in the corner of the dugout. After that I start pacing back and forth for two innings, then I go to the bullpen.

Ping!Baseball: So, it's safe to say that had you done that every game you wouldn't have made it to Omaha?

Cargill: (laughng) Yeah .

Ping!Baseball: When the top baseball conferences are mentioned, the ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10, usually get top billing, but Southern Miss and the rset of the Conferene USA teams have really been making some noise lately. Last season three of the sixteen teams in the Super Regionals were from C-USA. Do you think your conference gets overlooked nationally?

Cargill: I think we really do get overlooked a lot. I can't remember the stats, but there's been a consecutive number of years that multiple teams have made a regional. Last year we had three teams that made a super regional. I think we are growing as a conference and if people over look us then they're going to get beat.