One of Southern Miss baseball's fan favorites is thankful for his time in Hattiesburg.

Whether you call him Tuna, the Vancleave Villain, or just Carson, the power hitting right fielder has been a cornerstone of the Golden Eagles' success during his illustrious career. Paetow sat down with Big Gold Nation in the midst of the final stretch of his time in the black and gold.

Heath Hinton: You’re in your final season as a Golden Eagle. What’s that been like and how was the preparation different compared seasons in the past?

Carson Paetow: Physically there’s not much difference in my preparation. Mentally, though, it was more about soaking it in and being able to enjoy it as much as possible because I knew this was my last year. I try to enjoy the negatives just as much as the positives, because I know next year I’m gonna want to be back out here.

Heath: What do you think has changed in your approach at the plate this year?

Carson: I think there’s two things. It goes back to just enjoying it, so being able to shake off the negatives a little bit easier has helped me.

Second, I didn’t make any physical changes to my swing, but in terms of approach, I’ve truly bought into the kind of hitter that I am. That’s doing damage to the pull side of the field. That’s my goal is to do damage from center field to right field because I realized that’s what I do best and can hit pitches on the outer half there. Buying into that has helped me a lot.

Heath: What makes this team a little different than years past?

Carson: Honestly, our age. We have a lot of freshman that have really been a force on the mound and Drey Barrett on the field. The unique mixture of age is really good for us and it’s just different.

Since I’ve been here, I can’t remember when we’ve had so many young guys step up at the same time. Then we have the old veteran guys mixed in, so it’s a good thing.

Heath: For the veterans, what was the message to the team as leaders?

Carson: Our mission first of all is to get to not only get to Omaha but to win it. But our message has been that it’s not gonna be easy – any given day we can lose a ballgame and vice versa we can win ballgames.

There’s some teams on paper that we’re supposed to beat and other teams we’re supposed to lose to, but quite frankly it just doesn’t matter. Nature of the beast, we’ll show up to the park we’ll get beat by one of those teams we’re supposed to beat and we’re wondering what happened.

So the message is to take every day seriously because, if we want to accomplish those goals then we have to have extreme focus every day.

Heath: There’s a little juice to the Louisiana rivalry. You’ve seen the highs and lows in that series. What’s your favorite memory playing those guys?

Carson: It’s a no-brainer. My freshman year in that series we played them before we were in the same conference the historic bat flip by Danny Lynch. It was really incredible and pretty funny.

I told the younger guys, and this is just my perspective, I don’t really remember any crazy bad vibes between us and their players for UL. The fans are what supply the energy. Any time we go there or they come here the fans bring it.

Heath: What do you want to tell Southern Miss fans about your time here?

Carson: If I could somehow get every single fan I’ve ever met and that have supported me in the same room, I’d tell them thank you for welcoming me into the program. They showed a lot of love and respect. I’m very thankful and very fortunate to be in the position I am, to be loved by so many fans and I love every one I meet. So I just want to say thank you for making my time here so incredible.

The fans make everything more fun and a lot more worth it. Being able to make our fans happy is awesome to reciprocate that same love and energy has made it even better. So, thank you and I wish I had more time.

Heath: Last question. You’re fishing down in Vancleave, where do you go?

Carson: This may surprise because I am from Vancleave, but I’m not the biggest outdoorsman. I like hunting and stuff but didn’t grow up doing it.

Now fishing is one thing I really don’t have a lot of experience in, but I have gone many times. It’s a little bit different now because they cut a bunch of the rigs down. I’ll say going about 30 or 45 miles out and catching some snapper. I’ve done that a few times and it’s a lot of fun.