JACKSON — The way he talks about chemistry, Southern Miss coach Scott Berry sounds like a lab rat who’s been mixing potions for the past three months.

Sometimes, he admitted, it’s blown up in his face. Recently, however, Berry and the Golden Eagles have stumbled onto a new and exciting formula for winning baseball games.

Southern Miss (35-16-1) has won 13 consecutive games. It’s won slugfests and pitchers’ duels, blowouts and nailbiters. Now the Golden Eagles will try to win in the postseason, when they face UAB (30-24) tonight in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament in Hattiesburg.

“There’s a tremendous chemistry right now. They believe in one another. The expectation is to go out and win, and they feel like they can,” Berry said. “They’re playing hard, they’re doing the little things, not playing selfish, roles have been identified and accepted, and we’re playing for one thing and that’s to win baseball games.”

Southern Miss has seemingly done everything right since its winning streak started with a 10-7 win at Texas-San Antonio on April 26.

Four of its 13 wins have come in games in which the pitching staff gave up six runs or more. It’s also posted four shutouts, and scored at least eight runs in each of its last six games.

Pitcher James McMahon said it’s been a case of a team finding its rhythm at exactly the right time.

“We’ve just really jelled together. In my five years at Southern, this is as close as the team has ever been,” said McMahon, a fifth-year senior. “We’re catching some breaks. The pitchers are picking up the hitters, whenever that needs to be, and then the hitters are doing the same for the pitchers. Everybody’s just jelling together and we’re having fun.”

McMahon has been one of the key cogs in Southern Miss’ success all season. He’s 11-1 with a 1.72 ERA, and leads Conference USA in both wins and ERA.

On Monday, he won the C Spire Ferriss Trophy as the top college baseball player in Mississippi, and on Tuesday he was named Conference USA Pitcher of the Year. He also earned first-team all-conference honors.

A few other guys have caught fire recently, however, to help him out.

The Golden Eagles have homered in six consecutive games. Catcher Austin Roussel and right fielder Dylan Burdeaux, both of whom have hit four home runs total this season, have each hit two during that stretch.

First baseman Tim Lynch was picked to the All-C-USA second team on Tuesday, while infielder Taylor Braley and pitcher Kirk McCarty made the All-Freshman team.

Chase Scott moved from third base to left field and has put together a 21-game hitting streak. He was named the C-USA Hitter of the Week after delivering five extra-base hits and driving in nine runs last week.

“Here’s another guy whose role changed. He started out as our third baseman, did not particularly fare well there, but once he got a chance again the bat started playing and we knew we had to get him in the lineup somewhere,” Berry said of Scott. “We moved him to left field, gave him a week of practice reps, and ever since he’s been in the lineup he’s taken off.”

Southern Miss’ winning streak has helped it catch a few more breaks. It’s hosting the tournament, and the late-season surge elevated it to the No. 3 seed in the eight-team tournament. That put it on the opposite side of the bracket from top-seeded Rice (35-18).

Now, the Golden Eagles just need to keep winning. They’re No. 47 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings and squarely on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. They’ll earn an automatic bid if they can win the C-USA Tournament, and might get an at-large bid if they can make a deep run this week.

“All the stuff they look at, I feel like we have enough on our resumé to get into the big tournament where we want to be,” McMahon said. “Once you get there, you never know what can happen. We’re hot right now, so you never know.”

Conference USA Tournament

At Hattiesburg

Wednesday

Game 1 – UTSA vs. Middle Tennessee, 9 a.m.

Game 2 – Fla. International vs. Rice, 12:30 p.m.

Game 3 – Old Dominion vs. Florida Atlantic, 4 p.m.

Game 4 – UAB vs. Southern Miss, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday

Game 5 – UTSA-MTSU loser vs. FIU-Rice loser, 9 a.m.

Game 6 – Old Dominion-FAU loser vs. UAB-USM loser, 12:30 p.m.

Game 7 – UTSA-MTSU winner vs. FIU-Rice winner, 4 p.m.

Game 8 – Old Dominion-FAU winner vs. UAB-USM winner, 7:30 p.m.

Friday

Game 9 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6

Game 10 – Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8

Saturday

Game 11 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 9 a.m.

Game 12 – Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10, 12:30 p.m.

x-Game 13 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 4 p.m.

x-Game 14 – Winner Game 8 vs. Winner G10, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday

Championship game, Noon