Championship Central
The First, A National Banking Association, 2017 Conference USA Championship continues Thursday with four games on the schedule. Day one saw some surprises, including No. 1 seed Southern Miss and No. 3 Florida Atlantic both falling. It was a good day to be an even numbered seed, as the 2, 4, 6 and 8 seeds emerged. All of Thursday's games are on ESPN3 and live stats through StatBroadcast are available on the C-USA Baseball Championship Central page.
FLORIDA ATLANTIC 8, FIU 4
BILOXI, Miss. _ The first two times Florida Atlantic catcher Pedro Pages had stepped into the batter’s box Thursday morning at MGM Park, FIU right-hander Nick McDonald had started him off with breaking pitches.
“I was just looking for something I could shoot back up the middle,” Pages said. “The first two at-bats, they threw me first-pitch breaking balls, so I figured they were going to throw it to me again.”
McDonald did, and Pages ripped a slider into left field for a three-run double that sparked a six-run, sixth inning as the Owls stayed alive in The First, A National Banking Association, Conference USA Championship with an 8-4 victory.
Pages’ hit lifted FAU into a 3-2 lead, and Owls center fielder Jared Shouppe capped the rally with his seventh home run of the season, a three-run blast to right field.
“The bottom line is we didn’t get it done when it counted and they put a good inning together on us,” FIU coach Mervyl Melendez said. “Unfortunately, (Thursday) it went against us.”
The seventh-seeded Panthers (31-27) became the first team eliminated from the eight-team C-USA postseason field.
Third-seeded FAU (34-20-1) will move into Friday’s 12:30 p.m. elimination game, facing the loser of Thursday night’s Old Dominion -Rice matchup.”
“We move on, and at this point, you get no style points,” FAU coach John McCormack said. “You get no points for looking good or making good moves. Those things are all out the window. It’s about winning games, and trying to advance on.”
FIU led 2-0 after Nick Day smacked his 11th home run of the season off FAU starter Blake Sanderson, who lasted just two innings and gave up four hits.
Alex House (6-4) came in and allowed just two runs on three hits over seven innings. He walked two and struck out eight.
Day, who would finish with three hits and two runs scored, drove in his third and fourth runs of the game with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to get the Panthers back within 6-4, but FAU first baseman Esteban Puerta answered with a two-run double in the top of the seventh inning.
SOUTHERN MISS 5, LOUISIANA TECH 2
BILOXI, Miss. _ Listening to Matthew Guidry explain his approach before connecting on arguably the biggest hit of his career at Southern Miss, the moment is made to sound almost routine
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In fact, the freshman second baseman’s two-out, full-count fly ball over the netting in right-center field Thursday afternoon was one of the primary reasons the Golden Eagles remain alive in The First, A National Banking Association, Conference USA Championship
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Guidry’s three-run home run in the second inning gave Southern Miss a lead it never would lose and as the top-seeded Golden Eagles shook off Wednesday’s first-round loss with a 5-2 victory over fifth-seeded Louisiana Tech in an elimination game.
“We knew we had our backs against the wall losing (Wednesday) night, but it’s kind of crazy, because you might think we put pressure on ourselves, but we really don’t,” Guidry said. “We just come out here every single day and try and be consistent, not try and do too much.
“We just kind of came out here and got the train rolling again.”
Eleventh-ranked Southern Miss (45-13), which never has gone two games-and-out in a C-USA baseball tournament, move into a 6:30 p.m. Friday elimination game.
The Golden Eagles take on the loser of Thursday night’s game between fourth-seeded Charlotte and eighth-seeded UTSA.
The Bulldogs (36-20) were the second team eliminated from C-USA’s eight-team postseason field, following seventh-seeded FIU’s loss and exit earlier Thursday morning.
“They are one of the best teams in the country and they don’t play back-to-back bad baseball games,” Louisiana Tech coach Lane Burroughs said. “They’re not going to do it very often, and that’s why they’re the best team in our league.
“We had opportunities. We had guys on base. The difference is, they got the big hit, and we didn’t.”
After seeing a 14-game winning streak snapped in a 9-2 loss to UTSA Wednesday, Southern Miss wasted little time getting back on track.
Third baseman Taylor Braley singled to lead off the second inning and catcher Bryant Bowen walked with two outs before Guidry sent a Matt Miller (1-2) pitch high over the outfield netting in right-center field.
“Bryant had had a good at-bat right before me, and I knew (Miller) definitely didn’t want to walk (batters) back to back,” Guidry said. “He’d been pounding the strike zone all day, so I knew it was probably going to be somewhere near the zone.
“He kind of left one out over the plate, and that was about it.”
Southern Miss went up 4-0 in the third inning when first baseman Dylan Burdeaux walked and eventually came around to score on a bad relay throw on a potential double-play grounder.
The Bulldogs whittled the lead to 4-2 on solo home runs by designated hitter Cody Daigle (fourth of season) in the third inning and right fielder Marshall Boggs (ninth on season) in the fourth.
But McCarty (10-2) and closer Nick Sandlin, who pitched the final two innings to pick up his seventh save of the season, kept Louisiana Tech off scoreboard for the final five innings, Southern Miss added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning on a run-scoring single to right field by catcher Cole Donaldson.
McCarty scattered nine hits over seven innings, allowing two run. He struck out six and walked none. Sandlin allowed one hit and a walk while striking out four.
RICE 4, OLD DOMINION 3
Over the years, Rice has earned a reputation for winning close baseball games, and Coach Wayne Graham said the reason for that was very simple.
“Well, if you’ve got good relief pitching, you look real smart,” Graham said shortly after watching his closer, Glenn Otto, surrender only a walk over the final 3 1/3 innings of Rice’s 4-3 victory over Old Dominion Thursday in the second round of The First, A National Banking Association, Conference USA Championship
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“That’s the name of that game, all the way up to the major leagues. Good relief pitching, and you look like you can make all the right moves.”
The move gave the sixth-seeded Owls (29-29) a day off Friday and moved them straight into Saturday’s 9 a.m. semifinal game. Rice will take on the survivor of Friday’s 3 p.m. elimination game between second-seeded ODU (37-20) and third-seeded Florida Atlantic (34-20-1).
One win would put Rice into its ninth C-USA baseball championship game. Should Rice fall, the teams would play a second time at 4 p.m. for a spot in Sunday’s 1 p.m. championship game.
Rice first baseman Darryn Sheppard drove in a pair of runs, including what proved to be the deciding run with a RBI-single in the fifth inning.
But Otto (4-3) proved stifling, starting by stranding runners at second and third on a flyball to end the sixth inning.
“Glenn Otto was the difference,” Graham said. “Obviously, he was the difference.”
ODU coach Chris Finwood agreed.
“Otto was a big-leaguer out there (Thursday night),” Finwood said. “I told our guys I couldn’t him. He was on, and when he’s throwing the ball like that, he’s going to be tough.”
The game sported some warts.
Rice committed four errors and its pitchers committed two balks. Finwood said a missed cutoff man cost ODU two runs in Rice’s three-run, third inning and still was shaking his head over a runner interference play at the plate that ended a Monarch rally in the fifth inning.
“We had a tough call at the plate that would have tied it up (3-3), and we gave them two runs in the inning they got three,” Finwood said. “We’ve been really good, fundamentally, most of the year, but that really cost us.”
Center fielder Ryan Chandler had two of Rice’s seven hits, while ODU second baseman Jared Young led the Monarchs with two hits.
CHARLOTTE vs. UTSA 7:30 PM
UTSA won two-of-three games in Charlotte two weeks ago and the Roadrunners need a win today to reach the 30-win mark. The 49ers are seeking their sixth consecutive victory.