By SAM STAFF/Sports Writer

HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss Baseball saw seven players earn Sun Belt Conference honors in a vote taken by all 14 member schools, with Nick Monistere earning Player of the Year and former Vancleave High standout Carson Paetow being selected with the Tony Robichaux Leadership Award in an announcement by the league office Monday afternoon.

The Golden Eagles placed four players on the first team including both Monistere at second base and Paetow in the outfield, along with starting pitcher JB Middleton and relief pitcher Colby Allen.

Along with winning the Tony Robichaux Award, Paetow was awarded first-team on the virtue of finishing the regular season by starting in all 54 games in right field and producing a .288 average with 42 runs, a team-best 17 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs and 57 RBI. Paetow enjoyed belting five of the Golden Eagles nine two-homer games during the year. His numbers also included a grand slam at Texas State and a team-high 34 two-out RBI. For his career, Paetow ranks tied for ninth at the school in games played (232), tied for eighth in doubles (55), tied for fifth in home runs (46), No. 7 in RBI (187), and tied for No. 6 in walks (131).

As for the Tony Robichaux Leadership Award, it is meant for a baseball student-athlete who exemplifies the values and beliefs that the late University of Louisiana Coach Robichaux would instill on his players and his community. Paetow was named the ideal candidate after not only service as a team captain on and off the field, but by also using that leadership to help set an athletic and academic standard for his team.Monistere started all 54 games at second base and is hitting .332 with 12 doubles, a triple and a team-high 18 home runs with a team-best 66 RBI. He is tied for the lead league in homers and leads in RBI. His average is 10th in the league and his OPS (1.065) is fifth. He was a Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week (April 15) and NCBWA Player of the Month for April after hitting safely in 15 of 17 games, which included a career-best 12 game hitting streak to finish the month.

Meanwhile, Monistere is the first Golden Eagle to win Player of the Year in the Sun Belt and fourth overall to capture the award, joining Tommy Davis (Metro Conference, 1994), Dylan Burdeaux (Conference USA, 2017) and Luke Reynolds (Conference USA, 2018).

As for the remainder of the first-team selections, Middleton finished the regular season with a 9-1 record and a 2.07 ERA with 104 strikeouts and only 23 walks and 53 hits in 91 1/3 innings, while opponents hit .169 against him. He led the Sun Belt in innings pitched and ranked second in both ERA and wins. The Golden Eagles top starting pitcher ranks No. 2 nationally in WHIP (0.83), No. 3 in hits allowed by nine innings (5.22), fifth in ERA, No. 12 in wins and No. 15 in strikeouts. During the year, he pitched at least five innings in 13 of 14 starts, while posting 10 or more strikeout games four times during the year including a career-high 12 against both South Alabama and Georgia State.

Also on Monday, he was named the 2025 Ferriss Trophy winner, awarded annually to the most outstanding college baseball player in the state of Mississippi.

Allen, the other first-team pick, leads the team in appearances with 25 including one start. The right-hander posted a 6-4 record with 11 saves, ranking him tied for eighth on the school single-season chart. His season numbers include a 3.72 ERA with 68 strikeouts and only 14 walks in 58 innings of work with his strikeout total tying for six highest in the league.

The seven first team and second team selections for the Golden Eagles were the most by any team in the league this postseason and marked the most for the program since getting seven picks in 2021 when they were members of Conference USA.

Southern Miss returns to action Wednesday, May 21, when they start their two-time title defense as Sun Belt Conference champions with their first tournament game at 12:30 p.m., against a yet undetermined opponent.