The circle of trust, for those seeking entry, is an open-ended proposition.It’s not just about getting waved through at the door.

“It’s exciting, but there’s also a responsibility,” Southern Miss reliever Will Armistead explains.

He knows.

Armistead was waved through on a mid-April weeknight in Tuscaloosa, an impressive performance from a guy trying to climb lost in the ashes of a 13-0 setback against an SEC opponent.

The game got away from the Golden Eagles, but it didn’t get away when Armistead was pitching.

Nothing got away from Armistead Saturday in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament semifinals.

He threw seven innings, giving up just one earned run as the Golden Eagles defeated Appalachian State 11-1 to advance to the championship round.

The Golden Eagles (41-17) carried a low-20s RPI into Monday’s NCAA Tournament regional pairings selection show.

That didn’t get them a home regional and a super like they had last year, but they approach this postseason with a different kind of purpose. They’re the keepers of Scott Berry’s career.

The Southern Miss coach for 14 seasons, Berry announced earlier this month that he will retire when this team is done.

Players, of course, want to extend Berry’s time as much as possible, and performances like Armistead had Saturday will keep retirement in the distance.

For Armistead, the precursor of the Appalachian State game was the night at Alabama when he threw three scoreless innings with two hits, no walks and three strikeouts.

“That really kind of told me, ‘You know, my stuff’s good enough.’”

It was the first time Armistead had heard that reassuring voice inside.

Not that he was wallowing in self-doubt, he wasn’t, but he hadn’t gotten off to a great start in his first season of Division I competition.

A former Mooreville standout, Armistead was successful at Itawamba Community College though his sophomore season ended with a torn flexor pointed muscle.

He was at full strength for preseason drills in Hattiesburg. It was new surroundings, not an old injury, that slowed Armistead, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, in early-season appearances against Illinois and Dallas Baptist.

It took him 29 pitches to get three outs against the Illini, and when he hit his first batter against Dallas Baptist he was pulled.

The circle of trust wasn’t even on his radar.

It was more than three weeks before Armistead pitched again. He got the message.

“If you want more opportunities you’ve got to maximize the ones you get,” he said. “I had to perform to get more in the future.”

He threw a couple of shutout innings on a conference weekend against Georgia Southern.

“Then I got another opportunity, and it kept building.”

The Golden Eagles were just 8-5 after 13 games. They lost their first Sun Belt Conference series at Texas State.

They lost only one more, that one at regular season champ Coastal Carolina.

Southern Miss went 22-8 in conference play, a game behind Coastal.

Armistead ended the regular season as the team leader in earned run average at 2.43 over 29 2-3 innings.

Saturday’s game dropped his ERA to 1.96.

Berry trusts him.

“It took a little bit for him to get calmed down,” Berry said. “He needed to control the zone. He was in hitter-advantage counts, three-ball counts all the time. He was his own worst enemy. Once he was able to throw strike one and get ahead in counts he settled down.”

Part of Armistead’s slow start was about learning a new role. He was never asked to enter the game with runners already on base at Mooreville or ICC.

“To be honest, coming in in high-leverage relief roles is something I hadn’t really done before,” Armistead said. “I’d been a starter most of my career. That was something I had to learn, how to calm myself, how to slow the game down.”

The Sun Belt semis were his fourth start of the season.

Berry says Armistead, who commands a fastball and slider, has made great strides from his first two appearances.

His performance was critical in the series-clinching win against Louisiana-Lafayette in Hattiesburg on the final weekend of the regular season.

It was a hitter’s game, one Southern Miss eventually won 11-9 on the strength of two grand slams from Danny Lynch.

The Ragin’ Cajuns were scoring too, but Armistead helped slow things down when he entered with two on and no outs in the top of the fifth.

An inherited runner scored on an error, but Armistead threw 55 pitches over 2 2-3 innings with one run allowed.

“He’s just got blinders on. He’s so focused on what’s in front of him,” Berry said. “His delivery is a little unorthodox. It’s got some real old-time elements to it, like the way the old-timers used to pitch.”

Keeping Berry around is an important motivation moving ahead for the Golden Eagles.

“We all love coach Berry, and this is his last go at it,” Armistead said. “I feel like all the players have extra motivation to go out there and get this done not just for ourselves but for coach, who’s had our backs all season long. He’s pushed us and been there for us.”

Berry is 482-256-1 as the Golden Eagles’ coach after USM defeated Louisiana Lafayette in the Sun Belt Tournament finals. 

After Berry’s announcement the school quickly hired in-house as it announced that pitching coach Christian Ostrander will take over. He’s been with Berry the last six seasons.

Berry, a four-time Conference USA coach of the year with five regular season championships and four conference tournament titles says, he’s not thinking about how close he is to the finish line.

“As we wind this thing down I just think about the good times, the good wins, the good memories. I’m trying to keep my guys in the right lane and then stay out of their way,” Berry said.

His players are trying to honor that.

It’s a big responsibility, a lot of trust for those guys in the circle.

“The burden of success is placed on you, and you feel like you have an obligation, a duty, to be as prepared as you can be to bring your best,” Armistead said.