RUSTON, La. – Conference USA, with four teams ranked in the top 25 poll among the eight-team field, played Day 1 of the 2021 Air Force Reserve C-USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park on the campus of Louisiana Tech.

The league's eight teams are playing for C-USA's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in a five-day, double-elimination tournament that will culminate Sunday with the championship game at 1 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network. 

Wednesday's Day 1 action includes four games. All contests leading up to the championship game on May 30 will be be broadcast on ESPN+.

Coverage of the C-USA Championship, including live stats and video links are available on the Baseball Championship Central page.

Game 4: (3) Southern Miss 11, (6) WKU 1 - 8 innings (Box Score)

Hunter Stanley tied a C-USA single-game tournament record with 14 strikeouts to lead No. 3 seed Southern Miss to an 11-1 win over No. 6 seed WKU in the final game of the first day of the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Championships at JC Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
The latest-starting (12:15 a.m. CT) and latest-ending game (2:59 a.m. CT) in C-USA Baseball Championship history ended in the bottom of the eighth inning by way of the 10-run rule when USM’s Christopher Sargent hit a grand slam to left for the final margin.
 
The 14 strikeouts by Stanley (6-3) tied the record held by Charlotte’s Colton Laws vs. UTSA in 2017. He allowed just one run on three hits and one walk in 8.0 innings of action while throwing 108 pitches.
 
Southern Miss (36-17) struck early and late as the Golden Eagles continued their streak of being the only C-USA program to win a game in all 25 league championships held to date.
 
Southern Miss took an early 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Reece Ewing singled to plate Gabe Montenegro with the first run of the contest. Danny Lynch followed with an RBI single, scoring Sargent to increase the lead to 2-0. Will McGill tripled off the base of the centerfield wall, scoring Lynch and Ewing to give USM a 4-0 advantage.
 
Dustin Dickerson struck for the Golden Eagles in the bottom of the third, when he doubled home Lynch and Reese to up the lead to 6-0.
 
WKU finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth inning on Matt Phipps’ double to right field that scored Jackson Swiney, who led off the frame with a double down the right-field line.
 
Southern Miss ended the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with five runs, capped by Sargent’s slam.
 
Dickerson led USM with three hits while McGillis, Lynch, Montenegro, Trimble and Ewing added two hits apiece.
 
Phipps led WKU with two hits and the lone RBI.
 
With the win, Southern Miss advanced to a winner’s bracket game against No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. CT. WKU will face UTSA in an elimination game at 4 p.m. CT.

Game 3: (2) Louisiana Tech 7, (7) UTSA 6 - 12 innings (Box Score)

One minute shy of reaching five hours, Hunter Wells sent a 3-1 pitch over the wall in right center for a walk-off home run as No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech defeated No. 7 seed UTSA 7-6 in a 12-inning first-round marathon in the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
The time of game of 4:59 broke the mark set by Marshall and Louisiana Tech in the first game of the 2019 C-USA Championship that took 4:49 for Marshall to win 6-4 in 12 innings.
 
It appeared as though the game was not going to be longest in C-USA Tournament history with LA Tech (37-16) holding a two-run lead going into the ninth inning. UTSA (22-25) had other plans.
 
The Roadrunners, who were down four runs at one point, had the bases full with one out and got a sacrifice fly from Chase Keng to slice the deficit down to one. Down to their final out, Jonathan Tapia sent a double to left center to knot things up at 6-6 and ultimately send it into extras.
 
Both squads had ample chances to break the tie.
 
The Bulldogs’ Nick Ellis worked around a hit batter, a walk and two wild pitches to get out of the top of the 10th inning unscathed. The Roadrunners’ Arturo Guajardo escaped damage as well in the bottom half, getting three straight outs after allowing the first two runners to get on base.
 
UTSA threatened again in the 11th, opening things up with a walk and a single. With the go-ahead run 90 feet away, Shea Guitierrez flied a ball to shallow left field. Cole McConnell made the catch and threw a perfect dart to cut down the runner at the plate for the third out.
 
Cade Gibson came on in relief in that inning for LA Tech. He pitched the 12th as well, going one-two-three to set the stage up for Wells. The senior, who smacked a 3-1 pitch to right center for a solo homer in the 3rd inning, did the same exact thing on the exact same count to walk it off.
 
He ended the night with three hits and two walks to send the Bulldogs into a Thursday night matchup against Southern Miss in the winner’s bracket at 7:30 p.m. CT.
 
Nick Thornquist, along with Keng and Tapia, led the Roadrunners with two hits each. They will take on the Hilltoppers in an elimination game at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday.

Game 2: (8) Middle Tennessee 7, (1) Charlotte 2 (Box Score)

Aaron Brown allowed just three hits over seven innings of work in leading No. 8 seed Middle Tennessee to a 7-2 upset victory over nationally ranked and No. 1 seed Charlotte in the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
It marked just the seventh time in C-USA history that the top seed fell in the first round of the tournament.
 
Brown (7-5) was a workhorse on the mound, throwing 112 pitches while striking out six. The second-team All-Conference USA right-hander gave up just one extra-base hit, a two-run homer in the third inning.
 
That was all the 49ers could muster as fellow All-Conference selection David Zoz came in and retired all six batters he faced.
 
The Blue Raiders (24-27-1) never trailed in the contest, getting on the scoreboard quickly as Brett Coker took the first pitch he saw and sent it opposite field for a solo homerun in the top of the first.
 
They tacked on two more runs in the second inning, plating a pair on a fielding error and a walk after delivering three singles to load the bases.
 
The 49ers (39-18) sliced that deficit down to 3-2 after C-USA Player of the Year Austin Knight skied a ball that carried over the left field wall for a two-run jack, his 10th of the season.
 
The top seed would manage just one hit over the final six innings. Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee added one run in the fifth, an RBI single from DJ Wright, and put up a crooked number in the sixth, scoring three as Fausto Lopez delivered an RBI double and Hunter Sullivan followed with a single through the right side that plated two runners to make it 7-2.
 
Spencer Giesting (3-3) took the loss for Charlotte, going 4.2 innings as the starter while allowing seven hits and four runs. 
 
The 49ers will take on Florida Atlantic in the first elimination game Thursday at 9 a.m. CT. The Blue Raiders will battle Old Dominion in a winners’ bracket game at 12:30 p.m. CT.

Game 1: (4) Old Dominion 11, (5) Florida Atlantic 2 (Box Score)

A seven-hit, seven-run barrage from No. 18 Old Dominion in the bottom of the seventh helped the fourth-seeded Monarchs pull away from No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic 11-2 in the opening game of the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
A leadoff single from nine-hole batter Ryan Teschko helped turn it over for the powerful ODU lineup, leading to three more singles to help get the first two runs of the seventh inning on the board. A two-RBI single from Matt Coutney, a two-RBI double from Lincoln Ransom and a wild pitch helped the Monarchs build a commanding 11-2 lead.
 
The Monarchs (39-14) never trailed, posting a zero in the top of the first before tallying a two-spot in the bottom half to take an early 2-0 lead. ODU added to its lead in the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff solo home run from Kyle Levari, who went 2-5 with two runs scored.
 
Florida Atlantic (30-24) trimmed ODU’s advantage to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Second baseman Steven Loden recorded an RBI groundout to push across the Owls’ first run before right fielder Bobby Morgensen launched a solo home run to right center just two pitches later to cut Old Dominion’s lead to a single run.
 
A Monarch run in the bottom of the fourth stretched ODU’s lead back to 4-2 before the seven-run seventh put the game out of reach.
 
Old Dominion starting pitcher Ryne Moore (8-1), a second-team All-Conference USA selection, posted a quality start after allowing just five hits and two runs over six innings. Reliever Jason Hartline notched his second straight game with a save and his third of the season after limiting the Owls to just a single hit over the final three frames.
 
FAU starter Hunter Cooley (8-4) took the loss after going six-plus innings and allowing 13 hits and eight runs.
 
The Monarchs will face Middle Tennessee in a winner's bracket game at 12:30 p.m. CT on Thursday. The Owls will play Charlotte in an elimination game at 9 a.m. CT Thursday.