RUSTON, La. – Conference USA, with four teams ranked in the top 25 poll among the eight-team field, completed Day 3 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, and the semifinal field is set with Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion and Southern MIss.

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.

Friday's Day 3 action consisted of a pair of elimination games, as Florida Atlantic and LA Tech advanced to Saturday. All games 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 10: (2) Louisiana Tech 14, (6) WKU 4 - 8 innings (Box Score)

No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech used a 17-hit attack for a 14-4 victory over No. 6 seed WKU in an elimination game of the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
The game ended in the bottom of the eighth inning by way of the 10-run rule when LA Tech’s Jorge Corona hit a two-run homer to left for the final margin to cap a six-run inning.
 
Louisiana Tech (38-17) advances to Saturday’s action, where the Bulldogs will face No. 3 seed Southern Miss at 12:30 p.m. CT. USM needs to win one game to advance to Sunday’s title game, while LA Tech needs a pair of victories over the Golden Eagles to play Sunday. Should Louisiana Tech win the first game, the two teams would play again at 7:30 p.m. CT for the berth in the C-USA Championship Game.
 
LA Tech jumped out to a 6-0 lead after five innings, but WKU (27-29) sliced the deficit in half in the seventh to 6-3. After the Bulldogs scored two in the bottom of the seventh, the Hilltoppers pulled to 8-4 in the top of the eighth. 
 
The Bulldogs erupted for six hits in the bottom of the eighth with a triple by Hunter Wells, a single by Parker Bates and a double by Steele Netterville that scored four runs. Then with two out, Corona’s homer finalized Saturday’s semifinal field for with his homer to left.
 
LA Tech built its early advantage behind homers from Philip Matulia and Netterville and six scoreless innings with three hits allowed from starter Jarret Whorff (9-2).
 
The Hilltoppers broke through though in the top of the seventh with a leadoff single and double by Jackson Swiney and Davis Sims, respectively, to put runners in scoring position. WKU scored three runs after a fielding error, an RBI single and an RBI groundout.
 
LA Tech got two back in the bottom of the inning, both with two out. After Cole McConnell singled to right and then advanced to second on a throwing error, Manny Garcia and Corona ripped back-to-back doubles to left field to go up 8-3.
 
WKU was back at it on offense in the eighth, getting a triple from Jackson Gray. Despite four total hits in the inning, the Hilltoppers only managed one run to pull to 8-4.  
 
Seven of the nine Louisiana Tech batters had a multi-hit game, led by Corona, who had a team-high three hits with three RBI.
 
The Hilltoppers had 10 hits, getting two each from Gray and Sims.  Starting pitcher Dalton Shoemake (2-1) took the loss, allowing four runs.

Game 9: (5) Florida Atlantic 14, (8) Middle Tennessee 8 (Box Score)

No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic banged out 20 hits, including five homers, in route to a 14-8 victory over No. 8 seed Middle Tennessee in an elimination game of the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Baseball Championship at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
FAU (32-24) advances to Saturday’s action, where the Owls will face No. 4 Old Dominion at 9 a.m. CT. ODU needs to win one game to advance to Sunday’s title game, while FAU needs a pair of victories over the Monarchs to play Sunday. Should Florida Atlantic win the first game, the two teams would play again at 4 p.m. CT for the berth in the C-USA Championship Game.
 
The baseball was flying all over the park for both FAU and Middle Tennessee, as the two teams combined for the most runs (22) and hits (35) of any game so far in the tournament. The 20 hits by Florida Atlantic tied for the fifth most in C-USA Tournament history.
 
Those runs came in bunches, starting with Florida Atlantics, which struck first with a three-run second inning that was sparked by the first homer by Bobby Morgensen, a solo shot to right field.
 
The bats then came alive for Middle Tennessee (24-29-1), as the Blue Raiders amassed five runs over the next three innings with four of those RBIs coming from DJ Wright, who banged out two homers to give MTSU a 5-3 advantage.
 
The Owls used the long ball again to tie things up at 5-5 in the sixth, with back-to-back solo homers from Caleb Pendleton and Mitchell Hartigan, but the Blue Raiders reclaimed the lead with three straight two-out hits to score three runs and go back ahead 8-5.
 
Despite Middle Tennessee bringing in star lefty pitcher David Zoz in the bottom of the seventh, the lead disappeared quickly as FAU scored four runs on four hits to retake the lead at 9-8. The Owls broke the game wide open in the eighth with five more runs off six hits.
 
Zoz (6-3) took the loss for the Blue Raiders, while Dante Visconti (5-2) was credited with the win on the mound for the Owls.