A legend's victory lap: What Scott Berry's legacy looks like inside Southern Miss baseball

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Scott Berry furrows his brow and takes a puff from his cigar as he considers the question.

He’s settled aside an outdoor patio table at Southern Miss baseball’s team hotel, just a stone’s throw from Riverwalk Stadium, where the Golden Eagles had just booked their place in the Sun Belt Tournament final.

This has been something of a postgame habit for Berry, especially after wins – 523 of them during 14 seasons as Southern Miss’ baseball coach. Soon, though, that total will stop growing. Berry announced May 16 that this season will be his last, and now, he’s been asked to define the legacy he’ll leave behind.

“As you get older, you don’t focus as much on the wins and losses and all those things,” Berry says. “I think you focus on the kids and who they’re gonna become.

“I want people to understand that the things outside of baseball are just as important or more important than baseball. If you can’t live a good life off the field, then it’s gonna be hard to live a good life on the field.”

He wants to be remembered for caring for his athletes and for Southern Miss baseball, he says. And for striving to build upon the foundations former coaches Corky Palmer and Hill Denson left for him.

“Just try to keep building it and leave it at a position for the next guy to take it to the next level,” he says.

The Hattiesburg American spent the week behind the scenes with Berry and his team to document the pillars that have helped make Berry a Southern Miss legend, and get an inside view of the program he’ll turn over to pitching coach Christian Ostrander at the conclusion of the postseason.

Day One: Scott Berry's player-driven program

Two Southern Miss institutions are seated across from one another at the breakfast table in the lobby of the Embassy Suites hotel, trying to hold back the laughter. Radio broadcaster John Cox and Berry are on attempt three or four as they tape Berry’s pregame interview ahead of the tournament opener against James Madison. It's Wednesday.

Each attempt is interrupted by a bout of laughter at nothing in particular before they finally hold themselves together long enough to complete the task.

After the meal finishes up, Southern Miss’ hitters board the team bus toward the park, where they dismount and head for the dugout tunnel on the third-base side to take batting practice.

REGIONAL BREAKDOWN: Why Southern Miss baseball will — and won't — win the NCAA Tournament's Auburn Regional

SCHEDULE: Southern Miss baseball's Auburn Regional schedule, opponent, seed in NCAA Tournament

FROM START TO FINISH: How two childhood best friends willed Southern Miss baseball to a Sun Belt Tournament title

This group of experienced Golden Eagles is a lively bunch, with the conversation buzzing over the pings of their bats meeting the ball. In the corner, third baseman Danny Lynch is obsessing over the tournament format in the Atlantic Sun, where they seed teams based on RPI. A group of players near the cage entrance conduct a lively debate over what’s playing in the headphones of assistant coach Travis Creel as he throws batting practice, settling on either Morgan Wallen or “Big Booty Mix.”

After about 45 minutes, they file out of the concrete echo chamber to warm up on the field.

“That concrete gives you extreme confidence,” infielder Brady Faust says. “Every ball you hit was 110 (miles per hour) or more.”

Maybe Faust was onto something. The Golden Eagles tag James Madison for seven runs and 14 hits. But the star was Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year Tanner Hall, who allows just one run in a complete game performance that sets up the USM pitching staff beautifully for the marathon that awaits.

In his postgame press conference, Berry repurposes a question about Hall, using the opportunity to praise catcher Rodrigo Montenegro for his leadership. It’s the week’s first true insight into how Berry has forged Southern Miss into a juggernaut.

His program is player-run by design.

“Rodrigo was working him,” Berry said. “I saw him get on (Hall) one time on an 0-2 pitch because he didn’t bury it. And the next pitch he came back and buried it.”

Day Two: Scott Berry wins with blue collars, not blue chips

Hall is chatting over breakfast about a pathway that all his teammates can relate to.

The Louisiana native sat between 82 and 84 mph with his fastball as a junior in high school, making him an afterthought to SEC programs. Southern Miss made it clear it wanted him anyway. Four years later, he’s one of the best pitchers in the country.

He is the prototype. Overlooked, undervalued and ready to reward Southern Miss for seeing in him what others didn’t. It will be repeated over and over again long after Berry leaves ‒ because it has to be. Southern Miss baseball is about blue collars. Not blue chips.

“That’s not who we are,” Berry said.

Hall is one of the countless arms crafted from raw material into refined machinery by Ostrander. Though, to Hall, Ostrander’s impact was felt more on his mind than his arm.

“Another coach, if you miss one pitch, might make you feel like you’re not good enough to be out there,” Hall said. “Coach ‘Oz’ isn’t that guy. He’s wanting to remind you that you’re here for a reason. I turn into something meaner when I’m on the mound.”

Berry has known what the world found out May 21 for months: That Ostrander would take over when he left. He’s allowed Ostrander to shape the recruiting vision for the next cycle. And while it’s unique to have the present and future prowling around the dugout less than a month before the transition, it hasn’t changed the dynamic.

Berry’s impending retirement doesn’t seem to hang over these players. The Golden Eagles say they’re determined to win for him, but there’s no apparent added pressure. No one brings it up unless prompted – especially Berry.

“You gotta separate all of that from the task on hand,” Ostrander says. “And we are.”

Ostrander is adding the finishing touches to his opposition notes on Thursday afternoon. Hall’s overpowering stuff allows him to pitch to his strengths. Others – like today’s starter, Billy Oldham – require an approach more tailored to the opposition, in this case, Troy.

Oldham puts the Golden Eagles in position to win with five innings of three-run ball. USM leads 6-3 heading into the eighth, when disaster strikes. Two defensive mistakes let Troy back in the game, which goes to the bottom of the ninth tied 6-6. There, Lynch drives an opposite-field single to win it. 

After the dramatics, Berry opts to walk back to the hotel. He happily informs a group of inquiring kids that the Golden Eagles won before the passenger side window rolls down on a vehicle that pulls up alongside him.

“Scott Berry!” a familiar voice yells.

It’s USM football coach Will Hall, poking his head out of the window and grinning from ear to ear. Berry smiles and Hall’s car pulls away.

Berry is asked whether he would have reacted the same way after a thrilling victory like this one 14 years ago. Largely, yes, Berry concludes. But a younger Berry might have tossed some harsh words around in the dugout after the errors in the eighth. Now, he leaves his team – and his veterans – to sort it out. And he’s rewarded for that faith.

Day Three: Seniors underscore Scott Berry's consistency

The win earns the Golden Eagles a precious day off on Friday. They schedule a brisk workout at Alabama State, where the conversation of the day centers on trying to figure out the height of a neighboring water tower.

Berry stops to say he swam in a water tower once. He does not elaborate.

When the workout ends, Lynch – a senior who will stay on as a grad assistant next season – takes up a spot on the dugout bench to recount what he told the Golden Eagles at the end of their victory over Troy.

“I wanted to draw attention to, ‘Hey, me and Slade (Wilks) had bad at-bats all game,’” he says. “It wasn’t like we were hitting the ball hard or walking. We just had uncompetitive, bad at-bats. But then Slade ends up leading off the ninth inning with a single and I end up getting the big hit to win the game. That’s how baseball is. That’s what life is. It doesn’t matter if you struggle in baseball or in life. All you can do is control what’s coming up next.”

That, in a neat-and-tidy package, is what Berry has built: A program that cycles through senior figures like Lynch who show the way forward.

It is not a coincidence that the highest-rated recruiting class in Berry’s tenure, arriving in 2012, preceded his least successful period as coach. Southern Miss didn’t crack a regional again until 2016. The balance was upset, the veterans’ voices muted by that pedigree. In qualifying for seven straight regionals – recording at least 40 wins or more each year – Berry has perfected the art of leadership curation.

Even when Lynch started the season slow, hitting .196 after 17 games, Berry knew he was too important to replace.

And he owns a sharp eye for the next generation. Freshman second baseman Nick Monistere stands out. So does redshirting freshman Davis Gillespie. If Berry were conducting the exit meetings this season – he’s not, Ostrander is – he says he would tell those two to stick their chests out and carry themselves like future leaders.

Day Four: Relief for Scott Berry — and a championship in sight

“Why is it so quiet?” calls graduate assistant Brandt Jones as the hitters disembark from the team bus around 7 a.m. Saturday.

There are bleary eyes everywhere, with many hands clutching energy drinks that haven’t quite kicked in. By the time the Golden Eagles make it to the tunnel, though, they seem to have shaken their slumber. They hoot and holler and bark at inanimate objects.

Still, the performance USM delivers against App State befits a team that is half asleep. The Golden Eagles drop a 4-2 decision, setting up an elimination game later that day and damaging USM’s hosting resume with a bad loss.

“We’ve been playing well,” veteran first baseman Christopher Sargent says. “We’re not gonna freak out or nothing. It’s one of those things where you just look at each other and say, ‘Back’s against the wall.’”

The Golden Eagles dominate the Mountaineers a few hours later, 11-1, to secure a place in Sunday’s finals. Will Armistead, who did not get a weekend start for USM this season, tossed a seven-inning complete game. He looks visibly nervous in his postgame presser, but still manages to deliver the quote of the tournament when he tells the press he thinks of his opponents as “nameless and faceless.”

On the walk to the hotel, Berry promises Armistead to report back to the team on his press conference brilliance. A grinning Carson Paetow makes a promise, too.

“People are going to make this about Southern Miss making the finals,” he tells Armistead, slapping his chest with his glove. “But we won’t forget what you did.”

Not long later, Berry is making his way outside with a visitor to light his victory cigar. It’s the first time this week he’s chatted in detail about his impending retirement. He’s proud, he says. Proud of his program’s values. Proud of its consistency. Proud of carving out a place on the national stage that is usually reserved for programs with bigger names and budgets.

He’s known this year would be his last since August, and his efforts to keep that from leaking have been exhaustive. When the news broke earlier this month, it was a relief.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Berry said of his decision. “But I know it’s the right time.”

The changes around college athletics in recent seasons influenced his choice considerably, he said. Baseball is a business now, and that’s not the game Berry knows.

“I think it would be sad if I said, ‘I hate it, I’m done,’” Berry says. “That’s not the way I want to go. I don’t ever want to get to that point. That decision was tough. But it was time.”

Day Five: A dogpile, and Gatorade bath for Scott Berry

The Golden Eagles file into Salon C at the Embassy Suites for a Sunday devotional service led by team chaplain Lloyd Lunceford, who delivers a Memorial Day-themed message.

They pray for guidance to achieve their goals, for strength to be effective role models, for integrity to play and act the right way.

The mood on the bus is businesslike, and so is the performance. Taking on Louisiana, which upset top-seeded Coastal Carolina the previous day, the Golden Eagles take the lead in the fifth and never give it up on their way to a 6-2 victory and a title.

Justin Storm pitches 5⅔ scoreless innings in relief and strikes out eight. With him on the bump, there is little doubt.

Berry watches his fifth conference tournament title from the dugout steps. When the dogpile clears, many Golden Eagles embrace their head coach, who also gets an obligatory postgame shower of Gatorade and ice.

Following the same pattern he has all week, he deflects the attention in his comments to reporters postgame, insisting the day was about the players. But Lynch makes it clear just how much this means.

“He’s impacted our lives so much,” Lynch says. “The impact doesn’t really stop here. It’s gonna help me for the rest of my life. I’m sure it’s going to help Storm for the rest of his life. We owe the people we are today so much to him. So, it feels like this is just kind of a small repayment of that, if you will, because he’s done so much for us.”

David Eckert covers sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: What Scott Berry's legacy looks like inside Southern Miss baseball