CRUNCH TIME: Pirates, Cougars try to clinch CUSA Tourney spots

The University of Houston is hosting this year’s CUSA Baseball Tournament

Conference USA is employing a new six-team round robin format for its postseason tournament this season. That change and the fact that there is more parity throughout the league than there’s been in quite sometime—maybe ever—means there is plenty of suspense as we head into the final series of the season.

Rice has clinched another CUSA title. Southern Miss and Marshall know they’ve punched a ticket to next week’s tournament in Houston. However, those teams are playing for seeding and the league’s other five teams must play themselves in with their performance this weekend.

East Carolina and Houston are among that latter group.

To illustrate the parity in CUSA this season, the Pirates could finish anywhere from third to eighth depending on what happens these next three days.

ECU (30-23, 10-11), who was predicted by much of the college baseball media to at least return to the Super Regional round this season, was certainly not expected to be in its current position. Billy Godwin’s club has been plagued by off-the-field issues—which caused the dismissal of four players, as well as fielding (.951) and pitching woes (5.22 ERA).

The Pirates are hitting .323 with 69 home runs. Corey Thompson leads the team in average (.377) and runs batted in (49). Kyle Roller (.347) and Trent Whitehead (.341) are also hitting above .340.

Houston (22-29, 9-12) is coming off a 15-5 mid-week loss to Rice. The Cougars have been playing better of late, as they’ve won two of their last three conference series. They took two-of-three from Marshall last weekend.

UH’s struggles have been even more severe on the mound. The Cougars have a team ERA of 6.21 and the opposition is batting .297 against them. However, they have been much better with the glove, as they possess a .971 fielding percentage.

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Rayner Noble’s club is hitting .292 with just 37 home runs, but it does possess solid team speed. Four players have swiped ten or more bases.

Zak Presley is tops on the team in average (.363) and stolen bases (19-23). Caleb Ramsey (.346), Joel Ansley (.338), and Blake Kelso (.330) are other regulars batting over .300.

The Pirates and Cougars will be employing postseason-like approaches these next three games, as they must make sure they advance to the “next round”.

There may not be a tomorrow for one of these teams after Saturday.

The pitching match-ups for the series are below:

Thursday- ECU- Zach Woods (8-3, 4.31) vs. UH- Michael Goodnight (5-7, 5.47)

Friday- ECU - Seth Maness (9-3, 4.40) vs. UH- William Kankel (2-6, 6.13)

Saturday- TBD vs. UH- Eric Brooks (5-2, 6.75)