MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Southern Miss and Coastal Carolina did not face each other in the regular season, but as the two best baseball teams in the Sun Belt Conference they seemed destined to meet eventually.

The time has come.

Southern Miss beat Troy 2-1 on Saturday, and Coastal Carolina topped Marshall 6-1 to set up the showdown Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Sun Belt tournament championship game. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

“That would be be a lot of fun. We’re proud and excited to get to that championship game,” Southern Miss coach Christian Ostrander said. “We know it’s going to be tough — I mean, it’s going to be really hard. There’s not a game from here out that’s not going to be hard. So I think it’ll be great however this shakes out.”

Southern Miss (44-13) is seeking its third consecutive Sun Belt tournament title, as well as the right to host an NCAA Tournament regional next weekend. The latest projections from DI Baseball have the Golden Eagles as the No. 15 national seed and one of 16 regional host sites.

Coastal Carolina (47-11), the regular-season Sun Belt champion, is looking for its first tournament title since 2019. It is projected as the No. 10 overall seed and a regional host by DI Baseball and has won 17 games in a row.

“We’ve been here before. We kind of know what it takes,” Southern Miss pitcher Kros Sivley said. “Every year is different, but it’s a lot of fun each time. We know we have to go out and have every aspect of the game ready.”

Southern Miss extended its school-record winning streak to 18 games with its semifinal win over Troy (39-21). All of the game’s runs were scored in the first inning.

Troy’s Steven Meier singled and scored on a double by Sean Darnell in the top of the first. In the bottom half, Southern Miss’ Jake Cook walked, Nick Monistere was safe on a fielder’s choice, and both runners scored when Joey Urban blooped a single down the line that was overrun by Troy right fielder Gavin Schrader.

The pitching staffs took over from there. Troy’s Chase Nelson and Jay Dill combined for 10 strikeouts, while only allowing four hits and two walks.

Southern Miss’ Grayden Harris, Sivley and Colby Allen kept the Trojans on lockdown. Harris gave up six hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings, but only the one first-inning run. Sivley went the next 3 2/3 innings and was credited with the win, then Allen worked the last two to earn his first save of the season.

“Hats off to Troy, man. They competed their tails off and they played a really outstanding game. It was just kind of a pitchers’ duel all the way through,” Ostrander said. “The message to them was, you know, good teams find different ways to win. Sometimes it can be an offensive explosion, sometimes you’ve got to do it with pitching and defense, and that’s what we did today.”