It was the final regular-season home game for eight Southern Miss seniors Saturday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park and the group wanted to make sure they went out on a high note.

And they did, beating No. 17 Rice, 7-3, to clinch a share of the Conference USA regular-season crown. It was the first time in the league’s 16-year history that co-champions were crowned as Southern Miss ended the season tied with the Owls after beating them in the series finale. It marks the regular-season title for USM since 2003.

Seniors Marc Bourgeois and Mark Ellis, both natives of Canada who were honored before the game with the playing of their national anthem, responded with three and two hits respectively. Fellow senior Tyler Koelling added two additional hits as the Golden Eagles tallied 14 in the contest.

Like the two previous days, Southern Miss fell behind early, this time 2-0 after Michael Ratterree delivered a run-scoring single in the first and Craig Manuel added an RBI single of his own in the third.