Four Conference USA teams earn berths to baseball regionals

Rice, UCF, ECU, and UAB will open play on Friday 

Conference USA, which is historically one of the top five or six baseball leagues in the country, will be represented by four members—Rice, UCF, East Carolina, and UAB—in this year’s NCAA tournament.

Rice (40-17), the league’s regular season champion, will be making its 17 straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Owls, who are hosting for the tenth time in the last 12 years, will start play at 7 p.m. (EST) on Friday when they square off with SWAC tournament champ Prairie View (28-23). Wayne Graham’s club will meet either No. 2 seed Arkansas (39-19) or No. 3 Sam Houston State (38-20) on Saturday.

UCF (43-15), which also received an at-large bid, is making its second straight trip to the tournament under fourth-year coach Terry Rooney. The second-seeded Knights will head south to the Coral Gables Regional where they will get a first round match-up with Missouri Valley foe Missouri State (39-20). They will face either host Miami (36-21), which earned its 40 th straight berth, or fourth-seeded Stony Brook (46-11).

East Carolina struggled down the stretch and went 1-2 in the conference tourney, but still managed to receive a No. 2 seed at the Chapel Hill Regional. The Pirates (35-22-1), who are making their 26 th appearance all-time and 12 th in the last 14 years, will see a familiar foe in St. John’s. The Red Storm was ECU’s Friday opponent at the Charlottesville Regional last season. Billy Godwin and company will meet either No. 6 national seed North Carolina (44-14) or Cornell (31-15-1) on Saturday.

CUSA Tourney champ UAB (32-28) is bound for Tallahassee. The Blazers, who are making just their second trip to the tournament and first since 1991, will face No. 3 national seed and host Florida State (44-14) in Friday’s first round. No. 2 Mississippi State (39-22), which received the SEC’s automatic berth, will play No. 3 Samford, the Southern Conference tourney champ, in the regional’s other game.

Check back with cusa-fans.com as CUSA’s four participants compete along the Road To Omaha and attempt to advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals.

by Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum -
CUSA-fans.com ECU Correspondent