Six American Athletic Conference baseball squads opened their weekend series with wins on Friday, March 27.

Friday, March 27
Cincinnati 8, Saint Louis 4 - Box Score
No. 8 East Carolina 15, Elon 0 - Box Score
UCF 6, Troy 3 - Box Score
Wichita State 14, Omaha 5 - Box Score
Tulane 7, Grand Canyon 4 - Box Score
Houston 4, UT Arlington 1 - Box Score
Murray State 9, Memphis 5 - Box Score
No. 6 Texas Tech 16, USF 6 - Box Score

Cincinnati 8, Saint Louis 4 - Box Score
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati baseball team started things off with a four-run first inning and never looked back, adding on four more in the fifth in a 8-4 win over Saint Louis in nonconference action Friday at UC Baseball Stadium.
 
Cincinnati evened its record at 9-9 while the Billikens fell to 6-14 on the campaign. The Bearcats belted 12 hits, including four doubles, stole five bases, drew four walks and stranded eight.
 
UC got on the board after Wyatt Stapp hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to score Cole Harting. After a double steal, Jace Mercer scored on a passed ball and an Eric Santiago single up the middle plated Eric Santiago. Later, Paul Komistek singled through the right side to score Santiago, putting an early four on the line score.

No. 8 East Carolina 15, Elon 0 - Box Score
ELON, N.C. – Gavin Williams struck out a career-best 11 batters while his offense pounded out 14 hits as No. 8 East Carolina shutout Elon 15-0 Friday night at Latham Park. With the win the Pirates improve to 17-4 on the season, while the Phoenix drop to 5-10.
 
Williams (2-0) tossed a career-high six scoreless innings allowing four hits and walking one on the night. The right-hander had at least one punch out in all six innings including multiple strikeouts in the first, fourth, fifth (three) and six frames. He became the third pitcher this season to fan 10-plus batters in a game joining Carson Whisenhunt (10 vs. Rhode Island; 11 at Georgia Southern) and Jake Kuchmaner (10 vs. Charlotte). Nick Logusch (1.0 IP, 3 Ks), Josh Grosz (1.0 IP, 2 Ks) and Dylan Lawson (1.0 IP, 2 Ks) tossed the final three scoreless frames to preserve ECU's first shutout of the season. The quartet of pitchers didn't allow a hit past the third inning and combined on a four-hitter.
 
ECU used a pair of huge innings scoring six runs in the first inning, a season-best eight in the seventh and one in the ninth. Connor Norby led off the game with a solo blast, his seventh round-tripper of the season and third to start a game for an early 1-0 lead in the first. With one out, six-straight Pirates reached base via five hits and a walk. Seth Caddell had an RBI single through the left side that plated Thomas Francisco. Alec Makarewicz loaded the bases with a walk, which was followed by an RBI single (right field) by Zach Agnos, a two-RBI single (right side) by Ryley Johnson and an RBI sac bunt by Ryder Giles accounting for the other five runs in the stanza.

UCF 6, Troy 3 - Box Score
Troy, Ala. – After a three-hour delay to start the weekend series, the Knights defeated Troy in the first game of the season, 6-3. Led by Colton Gordon, the UCF pitching staff fanned 19 batters in the game to tie the single-game record, which last happened against Oklahoma on May 11, 2018.
 
Starting pitcher, Colton Gordon gave up a couple of hard-hit balls in his first inning of work, including a game-tying solo home, but he would settle in to toss a career-high 14 strikeouts in his six innings of work.
 
UCF started the contest by plating runs in each of the first three innings of the game. Pablo Ruiz led the charge for the Knights, driving in a pair with a double in the second inning, and later came around to score on a Gephry Pena groundout.
 
Continuing to show the power bat, Jordan Rathbone slugged his sixth home run of the season in the third inning, a solo shot to give the Knights a 5-1 lead. Ben McCabe added an RBI to his season total as he drove in Alex Freeland in the seventh to push UCF's advantage to 6-2.
 
The Trojans plated a run of their own in the bottom half of the fifth, and again in the ninth but were unable to complete a comeback.

Wichita State 14, Omaha 5 - Box Score
WICHITA, Kan. – Paxton Wallace homered twice, and Jack Sigrist, Hunter Gibson and Garrett Kocis each homered once as the Wichita State University baseball team thumped the Omaha Mavericks, 14-5, in the opening game of a three-game series Friday, March 26, at Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field.
 
The five home runs from the Shockers marked the most round trippers in a game for WSU since it went deep five times against South Florida in 2018.
 
Wallace went 3-for-5 with a pair of homers and a double and drove in five runs to lead Wichita State at the plate, while Couper Cornblum, Sigrist and Gibson each had two hits.
 
WSU right-handed starter Liam Eddy (2-3) picked up the win on the mound after allowing four earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts and one walk in seven innings.

Tulane 7, Grand Canyon 4 - Box Score
NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University baseball team (10-10) took down Grand Canyon University (9-12-1) in a 7-4 comeback win on Friday night inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
 
Freshman Jacob LaPrairie's grand slam that capped off a six-run fourth led Tulane to victory in the first game of the weekend series. The Green Wave bullpen had a dominant outing, shutting down GCU and sealing the win.
 
Senior righty Zach Barnes took the hill for GCU and threw three and two thirds innings, allowing six runs on six hits.
 
Down 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Tulane put up two runs on RBI base hits from freshman Simon Baumgardt and junior Frankie Niemann to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Then, with the bases loaded and two outs, LaPrairie crushed a 406-foot, no-doubt grand slam to deep right to take a 6-4 lead. The slam was LaPrairie's first home run of his career and the inning was Tulane's highest scoring of the season.

Houston 4, UT Arlington 1 - Box Score
HOUSTON – Houston starter Robert Gasser was masterful and the Cougar offense came through with four runs down the stretch as Houston downed UT Arlington, 4-1 to take the series opener Friday night from Don Sanders Field at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park.
 
The Cougars (11-9) erased a one-run deficit in the fifth, as Brad Burckel (1-for-3) laced an RBI-triple into right center, scoring Will Pendergrass (2-for-3). One batter later, Kyle Lovelace (2-for-3) snuck a single into center field for the 2-1 lead. Both runs came with two away.
 
Pendergrass delivered his third home run of the season, providing Houston a two-run lead in the seventh. The one-out solo shot, which sailed 378 feet over the left field wall, was the first homer for Pendergrass since he clubbed two on Feb. 27 at A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Gasser (3-2) worked around seven hits and a pair of walks, holding UTA to one run while striking out nine in 7.2 innings. The southpaw, who lowered his ERA to 2.00, has tossed 5.0-plus innings in all six starts and allowed one or no runs in four of six outings.

Murray State 9, Memphis 5 - Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Despite two home runs from birthday boy Taylor Howell, the Memphis Tigers fell 9-5 to the Murray State Racers in the series opener at FedExPark. The Tigers committed three errors that led to seven unearned runs against the combination of Blake Wimberley (L, 1-3) and Walker Brockhouse. Howell hit a solo home run in the fourth and did so again in the fifth, as he doubled his season home run total to four.
 
In his first start since his complete-game shutout last Friday, Wimberley didn't get through the first inning scoreless. Jake Slunder led off the game for Murray State (11-10) with a single, while Ryan Perkins followed with a two-run home run. Two batters into Wimberley's night, Memphis (9-11) trailed 2-0.
 
The Tigers tied the game with two runs in the third against Shane Burns (ND). A single from Ben Brooks loaded the bases for Hunter Goodman, and the All-American made it 2-2 with a two-run single. Goodman finished the night with two hits, one of only two Memphis starters with multiple hits.

No. 6 Texas Tech 16, USF 6 - Box Score
TAMPA – The USF Bulls (9-10) dropped the opening game of a three-game series at No. 6 Texas Tech (17-4) on Friday night, 16-6.
 
The Bulls managed to blank the Red Raiders in five frames, but were plagued by nine extra-base hits, leading to all 16 runs by the home teams as Texas Tech hung crooked numbers on the scoreboard in three different innings.
 
The Red Raiders hit their first of four home runs on the night in the second inning to take an early 2-0 advantage. USF answered back with a run in the top of the fourth, making it a one-run game until Texas Tech plated nine runs in the fifth to put the game out of reach.