Champ Central | Video | Program | Bracket | Complete Notes
The American Athletic Conference will host its fifth baseball championship presented by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Fla. from May 22-27. First pitch of Game 1 featuring No. 5 seed UCF and No. 4 seed ECU is set for 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday. No. 8 seed Tulane and No. 1 seed Houston are scheduled to take the field at noon. All eight teams enter the tournament in the top 100 of the NCAA RPI, while The American ranks fourth among the nation's 31 Division I conferences in the RPI.
The American ended its nonconference regular season slate with a .638 winning percentage, good for fourth among the 31 NCAA conferences. The league additionally owns the fourth-best RPI in the country. The American is one of three conferences to boast three top-25 RPI teams to end the regular season, alongside the ACC and SEC, with ECU at No. 13, UConn at No. 19 and USF at No. 22.
D1Baseball.com and Baseball America currently project five teams from The American to make the NCAA Tournament and D1Baseball.com projects one American team to host a regional (ECU). Five teams would be the most to earn a bid to the national tournament in conference history.
ECU collected The American’s baseball Player of the Year, Rookie Pitcher of the Year and Team Academic Excellence awards, while Houston southpaw Aaron Fletcher took Pitcher of the Year and head coach Todd Whitting was named Coach of the Year. ECU sophomore OF Bryant Packard led the league through the regular season with a .418 batting average and was named Player of the Year, while the Pirates’ freshman lefthander Alec Burleson held a 2.91 ERA and 5-1 record to earn the Rookie Pitcher of the Year honor. UConn infielder Christian Fedko took home the Rookie Position Player of the Year award.
Defending conference champion Houston has surged through conference play and is in a strong position to repeat. The league’s past two Pitcher of the Year selections play for the Cougars, including Fletcher, who leads the conference with a league-low 1.82 ERA and Trey Cumbie, who set the league’s shut out and complete game records this season. Tulane took two of three from the Cougars during the regular season, as both Green Wave wins were decided by two runs or fewer. Houston is the only team in the conference to have reached the championship game in each of the last four years, winning the title twice. The Cougars own a record of 13-3 in four years playing in Clearwater.
No. 2 seed USF’s offense has flourished this year, as the team averages the second-most doubles per game in the nation with 2.47 and leads the league in four offensive categories. Under the helm of first-year head coach Billy Mohl, the Bulls defeated No. 7 ECU in a key April series, and have 12 series wins this season.
Last year, ECU reached the conference finals as the No. 8 seed, and won the title in 2015. The Pirates will look to bring the championship back to Greenville following a tremendous regular season. ECU has been featured in all five national polls for 10-consecutive weeks, cracking the top 10, four times this year.
The Huskies set a program record with 22 wins on the road this season, good for the second in the nation. UConn eclipsed its previous school record of 21 road wins back in 2010.
Second-year UCF head coach Greg Lovelady will be looking for his 200th career win to open conference tournament play as the No. 5 seed on Tuesday against the Pirates. 1B Rylan Thomas is batting .348 and leads the conference with a .447 on-base percentage and 54 RBIs. The Knights are 7-0 in extra-inning games and 7-1 in games decided via walk-off. The Knights’ pitching staff holds a league-low 3.18 ERA and ranks No. 2 in the NCAA with 7.09 hits allowed per nine innings.
The American’s teams have had solid defensive outings this season and rank in the top 20 in multiple statistical categories. Cincinnati and Tulane are only two of 16 teams in the nation to have turned a triple play this season. The Bearcats have also turned the most double plays in the nation with 62 and 1.22 per game this year. ECU owns the 19th-best fielding percentage in the nation at .979, while UCF is No. 11 in the country with a 3.18 ERA. The Knights also have the most shutouts in the nation with nine and have held teams to 7.09 hits allowed per nine innings, good for No. 2 in the NCAA. USF is fifth in the nation with 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings, fueled by southpaw ace Shane McClanahan who leads the nation with 15.06 strikeouts per nine innings.
Projected to finish last in the preseason coaches’ poll, No. 6 seed Cincinnati exceeded expectations and finished sixth place this season. The Bearcats will be after their first conference championship win this week and are set to face No. 3 seed UConn in the first round on Wednesday.
No. 7 seed Wichita State enters its inaugural American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship on the heels of a solid regular season. 3B Alex Bohm has hit three grand slams this year and is batting .332, slugging .616 and leads the conference with 15 home runs and 56 runs scored. He is a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist and a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist.
The 2018 tournament will be played in a double-elimination format through the semifinal round. The championship final is a winner-take-all matchup Sunday, May 27, which will determine The American’s automatic entrant to the NCAA Championship.
Live coverage of the first five days of the championship - as many as 14 games - will be provided by the American Digital Network Plus, the conference's new home for live events on the Facebook platform. The May 27 final will be televised at noon ET on ESPNews.
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Tuesday, May 22 (American Digital Network Plus)
Game 1 - No. 5 UCF vs. No. 4 ECU - 9 am.
Game 2 - No. 8 Tulane vs. No. 1 Houston - Noon
Wednesday, May 23 (American Digital Network Plus)
Game 3 - No. 7 Wichita State vs. No. 2 USF - 11 a.m.
Game 4 - No. 6 Cincinnati vs. No. 3 UConn - 3 p.m.
Game 5 - Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 - 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 24 (American Digital Network Plus)
Game 6 - Loser of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 - 11 a.m.
Game 7 - Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 - 3 p.m.
Game 8 - Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 - 7 p.m.
Friday, May 25 (American Digital Network Plus)
Game 9 - Loser of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 5 - 11 a.m.
Game 10 - Loser of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 6 - 3 p.m.
Saturday, May 26 (American Digital Network Plus)
Game 11 – Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 9 - 10 a.m.
Game 12 – Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 10 - 1 p.m.
Game 13 – Loser of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 11 - 4:30 p.m.
Game 14 – Loser of Game 12 vs. Winner of Game 12 - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 27 (ESPNews)
Game 15 – Semifinal winners - Noon
All times ET & subject to change