HATTIESBURG, Mississippi - Day three of the 2022 Conference USA Baseball Championship, presented by The First, is complete, after wrapping up a three-game slate from Pete Taylor Park Friday on the campus of Southern Miss.

Four teams remain after the elimination of both Florida Atlantic and Charlotte and the quartet are still 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.

Thursday's Day three action was comprised of three games - a winner's bracket game and a pair of elimination games. UTSA advanced to the semifinal round with a 7-6 win over top-seed Southern Miss in the opening game, Old Dominion sent Charlotte home with a 13-4 win in the matinee, and Southern Miss stayed alive in the late game, knocking off FAU 5-0 and advanced to a rematch on Saturday with UTSA at 12:30 p.m. CT. Old Dominion will take on No. 2 LA Tech in the first game at 9 a.m. CT. There are also a pair of "if necessary" games set for 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. All contests leading up to the championship game on May 29 will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Game 10: (1) Southern Miss vs. (4) Florida Atlantic - (elimination game) | Box Score

Starting pitcher Hunter Riggins tossed 7.1 scoreless innings and the Golden Eagles offense erupted for five runs over their final two at-bats as the 14th ranked host Southern Miss advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 Conference USA Baseball Championship with a 5-0 shutout of fourth-seeded Florida Atlantic Friday night at Pete Taylor Park. 
 
Owls pitcher Jacob Josey kept Southern Miss off balance at the plate for much of his 6.2-inning start as he issued just one hit and two walks over his first five innings on the hill. In the seventh, however, the Golden Eagles got an RBI-single by catcher Rodrigo Montenegro to plate third baseman Danny Lynch from second for the only run they would need.

Shortstop Dustin Dickerson drew a bases-loaded walk later in the frame to bring home second baseman Will McGillis, and Southern Miss added three more in the bottom of the eighth on doubles by Lynch and right fielder Carson Paetow. Dalton Rogers, who came on with one on and one out and the eighth, allowed just one baserunner over the final 1.2 innings to earn his sixth save of the year.
  
With the win, Southern Miss improved to 43-15 overall and advances to take on UTSA on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles dropped a 7-6 contest to the Roadrunners earlier in the day and will have to defeat UTSA twice in order to advance to the title game. FAU, meanwhile, wraps up the 2022 campaign at 35-23.
 
While the Owls failed to scratch across a run, Florida Atlantic had the home crowd a bit nervous in the third when Riggins issued three consecutive two-out walks. FAU left fielder Dylan Goldstein drove the second pitch he saw during the ensuing at-bat deep toward his counterpart, Reece Ewing, but the Southern Miss outfielder timed his jump perfectly to snare the ball and thwart the rally.

Florida Atlantic had another scoring opportunity in the fifth when catcher Caleb Pendleton and shortstop Armando Albert hit back-to-back, one-out singles. Riggins, however, responded with a strikeout and a ground ball to second to keep the shutout intact. He would finish the day with seven strikeouts and three walks while scattering five hits to improve to 8-4.
  
Josey (4-5) took the loss for FAU, allowing two runs on five hits while walking four and striking out a pair. Lynch finished 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI for Southern Miss and was joined by Wilks and Lynch in the multiple-hit club.
 
Game 9: (3) Old Dominion 13, (7) Charlotte 4 (elimination game) | Box Score

Old Dominion erased a 4-1 deficit with six runs in the fourth inning as third-seeded Old Dominion defeated No 7 seed Charlotte, 13-4, in day three of the 2022 Conference USA Baseball Championship on Friday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park.
 
The 49ers came out on fire with three runs in the top of the first and added a single tally in the fourth. From there, however, it was all ODU as the Monarchs followed their six-run stanza with two in the fifth and the final four in the eighth. With the win, Old Dominion hit the 40-win plateau to improve to 40-16 and advances to face No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT. Charlotte concludes the 2022 campaign 36-22.
 
The Monarchs out-hit the 49ers, 15-11, with right fielder Carter Trice and shortstop Tommy Bell sharing team-high honors with three hits apiece. Carter had the biggest single swing of the contest with a grand slam in the game-changing fourth. Jacob Gomez picked up the win out of the bullpen, giving up just one run on four hits, while striking out five and walking a pair to improve to 5-1 on the year. Jason Hartline tossed a pair of scoreless innings, and Noah Dean threw a perfect ninth to close things out.
 
Charlotte got things going early on as second baseman Nate Furman and designated hitter David McCabe doubled to open the ballgame, and third baseman Jack Dragum followed with a two-run homer to left central to stake the 49ers to a 3-0 advantage. Old Dominion got on the scoreboard in the home half of the frame when catcher Brock Gagliardi singled in centerfielder Thomas Wheeler from second, but the 49ers got the run back in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by Dragum.
 
The bottom of the inning did not start well for Old Dominion as the first two batters went down in order, but second baseman Chris Dengler and Wheeler sandwiched walks around a Bell single to chase Charlotte starter Hale Sims from the game. Trice sent the first offering bullpen arm Tony Rossi sent to the high over the wall in left centerfield, and things did not improve much from there for the 49ers reliever as Matt Coutney walked on four pitches and right fielder Andy Garriola crushed a two-run homer to left center to give Old Dominion a 7-4 lead it would not relinquish.  
 
The Monarchs added a pair of runs in the fifth courtesy of a two-run double by Dengler, and capped the scoring with RBI-doubles by both Coutney and pinch hitter Lincoln Ransom as well as a run-scoring single by Kenny Levari to account for the final tally.

Furman and Dragum led Charlotte with three hits each. Rossi was saddled with the loss after allowing three runs on a pair of hits and a walk while failing to record an out.

Game 8: (5) UTSA 7, (1) Southern Miss 6 | Box Score
 
First baseman Ryan Flores broke a 6-6 tie with a solo home run in the top of the ninth and bullpen arm Simon Miller pitched his way around a one-out walk in the bottom of the inning as No. 5 seed UTSA defeated top-seeded and host Southern Miss, 7-6, to open day three of the 2022 Conference USA Baseball Championship on Friday morning at Pete Taylor Park.

The Roadrunners out-hit the Golden Eagles, 12-10, including two-hit performances by Flores, third baseman Jonathan Tapia, second baseman Leyton Barry and catcher Josh Killeen. Miller (4-3) entered the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh and forced Southern Miss to strand a pair of runners on base, and after giving up a run in the eight, made some big pitches in the final frame to keep his team in the winner’s bracket.
 
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for Southern Miss, which will take on Florida Atlantic on Friday evening in a game scheduled for a 6:20 p.m. CT first pitch. UTSA will face Southern Miss again on Saturday, at 12:30 p.m. CT.
  
UTSA drew first blood in the top of the second when shortstop Matt King opened the inning with a single, advanced the bases on a wild pitch and a single by Tapia. During the ensuing at-bat, Barry hit a potential double-play ball that Southern Miss shortstop Dustin Dickerson fielded cleanly and tossed to second for the first out, and Golden Eagle middle infielder Will McGillis fired back to the plate in an attempt to cut down the runner, but King was able to elude the original tag to make it 1-0. Killeen added an RBI single to shallow left to double the Roadrunners’ lead.

The lead, however, did not last long as a one-out walk to McGillis chased UTSA starter Jacob Jimenez from the game. Reliever Ulises Quiroga was able to retire the first batter he faced, but his Southern Miss catcher Blake Johnson hammered a 1-2 Quiroga offering over the wall in left central to tie the ballgame.
 
After two scoreless innings, UTSA broke the tie in the top of the sixth when designated hitter Garrett Poston drove home right fielder Chase Keng with an RBI-double to right center. Southern Miss, however, responded in the home half of the stanza when left fielder Reece Ewing doubled and both first baseman Christopher Sargent and designated hitter Slade Wilks singed in consecutive at bats to each drive in a run and stake the home team to a 5-3 lead. 
 
The Roadrunners answered in the ensuing frame, however, taking advantage of a misplayed ball in the outfield to plate a pair of runs as Barry scored on a groundout off the bat of Flores and centerfielder Shane Sirdashney came around on an RBI-single by Killeen to tie the score. Both teams added single runs in the eighth to set up UTSA’s ninth-inning heroics.
 
Right fielder Carson Paetow and Johnson shared team-high hit honors for Southern Miss with two apiece. Landon Harper (2-2), who came on to start the ninth inning, was tagged with the loss.