Complete Notes
Following another impressive midweek slate, The American’s baseball teams will enter Week 6 of league play this weekend, as the top of the standings will clash when ECU (30-9, 8-4) hosts Houston (25-16, 10-5). With four weeks left of conference play, only three games separate the No. 1 spot from seventh place. UConn (23-12-1, 7-5), ECU, Houston and USF (27-14, 9-6) are coming off conference series wins.
The American is just one of three conferences (along the ACC and SEC) to have three top-20 RPI teams with ECU (30-9, 8-4) at No. 11, UConn (22-12-1, 7-5) at No. 12 and Wichita State (26-12, 4-8) at No. 19. Overall, the league owns the fourth-best RPI ranking among other conferences.
Five American teams were featured in D1Baseball.com’s latest regional projections. UConn and ECU were listed as projected hosts, while UCF (27-14, 7-8), USF and Wichita State were each spotted in a regional.
Four teams received a national ranking this week, as ECU returned to the top 10 for the second time this season. Featured in all five polls for a sixth-straight week, the Pirates were listed at No. 7 in Baseball America’s poll and were listed at No. 8 on three other polls. USF cracked the top 25 for the first time this year and received attention on four polls total with its highest ranking coming from Baseball America at No. 20. UConn came in at No. 20 on D1Baseball.com’s list and was featured in two other polls. The Shockers received national attention for an eighth-straight week, listed at No. 30 on NCBWA’s poll.
The American picked up five wins in midweek action on Tuesday night. The league has gone 15-2 against nonconference opponents over the past two weeks to improve to 152-86-1 (.639) for the third-best nonconference record among the 31 Division I conferences.
The Cougars will enter the weekend in the No. 1 spot for a fourth straight week following a sweep over No. 24 Wichita State. Tied at 5-5 in the final frame of Game 2, OF Grayson Padgett hit his second walk-off home run of the season to give the Cougars the 6-5 series-clinching victory. Houston went on to win the series finale to hold onto its first place spot in the standings.
ECU is 16-6 at Clark-Leclair Stadium this year and has won four straight games. The Pirates are coming off a sweep at Memphis to catapult into a first-place tie with Houston in the conference standings. ECU is 9-1 in Game 3s this season with three players batting over .300. OF Bryant Packard ranks top-10 in the conference in six offensive categories and leads his team with a .400 batting average, 50 hits, nine doubles, 10 home runs, a .712 slugging percentage and 35 RBIs. RHP Chris Holba (9-0) leads the nation with nine wins and owns a league-low 1.48 ERA, which ranks 15th in the NCAA.
USF is coming off a War on I-4 victory over UCF and clinched its 10th series of the year when it defeated Bethune-Cookman 5-3 on Tuesday. USF leads the league in slugging percentage, hits, doubles and triples. The Bulls’ 2.61 doubles per game are No. 2 in the nation. Friday night southpaw starter Shane McClanahan leads the nation with 15.02 strikeouts per nine innings and has had 10 or more Ks in five of his nine appearances this season. USF will host Memphis this weekend.
UConn is on a roll, winning its last three conference series and nine of its past 10 nonconference games after a 9-6 win at Holy Cross on Tuesday. Last weekend, the Huskies took down former first-place Cincinnati on the road. Prior to that, UConn knocked off back-to-back ranked league opponents, including No. 20 Wichita State and No. 22 UCF. Up next, UConn will host Tulane (20-22, 6-6) in a three-games series. Games 1 and 2 will take place at Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford. The Green Wave is 4-1 in its past five games, scoring at least eight runs in three of those contests. Tulane is one of 12 teams this season to turn a triple play, which it achieved in an 8-2 win over Texas Southern on Tuesday.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE / RESULTS
Tuesday, April 24
No. 20 UConn 9, Holy Cross 6
No. 20 USF 5, Bethune-Cookman 3
Memphis 10, Murray State 6
No. 30 Wichita State 14, Kansas 5
Tulane 8, Texas Southern 2
No. 19 Texas 9, Houston 4
Wednesday, April 25
Rhode Island at UConn - Cancelled
Friday, April 27
Kansas at Cincinnati - 6 p.m.
Wichita State at UCF * - 6:30 p.m.
Houston at ECU * - 6:30 p.m.
Tulane at UConn% * - 7:05 p.m.
Memphis at USF * - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 28
Tulane at UConn% * - 2:05 p.m.
Houston at ECU * - 4 p.m.
Kansas at Cincinnati - 6 p.m.
Memphis at USF * - 6:30 p.m.
Wichita State at UCF * - 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 29
Tulane at UConn * - 1 p.m.
Kansas at Cincinnati - 1 p.m.
Houston at ECU * - 1 p.m.
Memphis at USF * - 1 p.m.
Wichita State at UCF * - 1 p.m.
All times ET & subject to change
* conference game
% Dunkin’ Donuts Park, Hartford, Conn.