HATTIESBURG - Imagine for a moment the 2016 version of the Southern Miss baseball team without Tim Lynch and Jake Winston.
Lynch, who hit .313 with nine home runs last season, and Winston, who was 1-0 on the mound with a 2.58 ERA — the second-lowest on the team among pitchers with at least 15 appearances — as a junior.
Now imagine how coach Scott Berry felt when he was faced with the prospect of losing both of them to Major League Baseball before they’d exhausted their eligibility.
“Certainly, I’d hate to line up out there if they weren’t with us,” the seventh-year coach said recently.