It’s become part of the weekly routine for Southern Miss’ baseball team — win another series, come back to practice on Monday and see which players have won Conference USA and national awards for their efforts.

This time, it was Luke Reynolds and Nick Sandlin.

Reynolds was named the Conference USA Hitter of the Week on Monday, while Sandlin collected a National Player of the Week nod by the publication Collegiate Baseball.

The awards came in the wake of a three-game sweep of UAB that was Southern Miss’ 12th consecutive C-USA series victory.

The Golden Eagles (35-12, 19-4 C-USA) have won 12 of their last 13 games overall to open a 3 1/2-game lead in the standings with six left in the regular season. They can clinch the C-USA regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the league tournament by winning next weekend’s series against second-place Louisiana Tech in Hattiesburg.

The Conference USA Tournament is May 23-27 in Biloxi.

Reynolds won his second weekly C-USA award of the season by hitting safely in the first three games of the week to improve his hitting streak to 13 games. The hitting streak was snapped in Sunday’s 9-4 win over UAB, although Reynolds did walk twice and score a run.

Reynolds scored in all four games last week and leads Conference USA with 55 runs. He also hit four home runs over a three-game span, including his third two-homer game of the season against Tulane. He now leads the Golden Eagles with 12 home runs for the season.

Reynolds also drove in eight runs last week and leads the team with 51 for the season.
As for Sandlin, he tossed his second straight, as well as his second career, complete-game shutout in a 6-0 win over UAB on Friday. He allowed six hits, two walks and a hit batter.

Sandlin ran his string of innings without allowing an earned run to 32 as he overcame a blister on his throwing hand early in Friday’s game.

The Evans, Ga., native struck out nine, including seven over the final five innings, to improve his record to 7-0. He has now struck out 106 batters and walked only 10 this season.
Sandlin ranks among the nation’s leaders in both strikeout-to-walk radio (10.6-1) and strikeouts per nine innings (13.25).

This was the fourth time this season Collegiate Baseball has acknowledged Sandlin during its weekly awards. He has also been the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week three times, most recently for the week of April 23.