HATTIESBURG – For the second consecutive season the Southern Miss baseball program reeled in a top 25 recruiting class with a No. 21 ranking for the 2010 signing class announced today by Collegiate Baseball Magazine.

“I think this is a real credit to where our program is,” head coach Scott Berry said. “We have been able to get a lot more interest out of different kids from all over the country with the consistency our program has had over the past seven seasons and especially with the exposure we gained from going to Omaha last year.”

The No. 21 ranking this season is the second time in school history that the Golden Eagles have received recognition for their signing class. The 2009 class was ranked 23rd by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and included several players that were key cogs in the teams amazing run to Omaha such as Joey Archer, Kameron Brunty, Travis Graves, Tyler Koelling, Cody Schlagel, B A Vollmuth and Taylor Walker among others.

The 2010 class features 16 new faces, nine of whom are true freshman. Six of the junior college players will transfer in as a juniors while one will be only a sophomore.

The Golden Eagles were able to fight off the Major League draft to keep freshmen Geoffrey Thomas and Chase Fowler along with junior college transfer Marc Bourgeois who were all selected in June’s draft but chose to enroll at Southern Miss rather than turn professional.

Thomas, a RHP from Stone Mountain, Ga., was selected in the 12th round by the Houston Astros and Fowler, a catcher from out of Cumming, Ga., was taken in the 16th round by the Cincinnati Reds.

Bourgeois, an outfielder from Chipola Junior College in Florida was drafted in the 42nd round by the Minnesota Twins.