Cincinnati and Wichita State both clinched series wins in American Athletic Conference baseball action on Saturday, March 27.

Saturday, March 27
Cincinnati 8, Saint Louis 5 - Box Score
Wichita State 9, Omaha 0 - Box Score
Elon 2, No. 8 East Carolina 1 - Box Score
No. 6 Texas Tech 8, USF 0 - Box Score
Grand Canyon 8, Tulane 7 - Box Score
UT Arlington 12, Houston 7 (Game 1) - Box Score
UT Arlington 8, Houston 7 (Game 2) - Box Score
Troy 2, UCF 1 - Box Score

Cincinnati 8, Saint Louis 5 - Box Score
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati baseball team hit four home runs and eight of the nine players in the lineup had a hit or and RBI in an 8-5 victory over Saint Louis, Saturday at UC Baseball Stadium.
 
Griffin Merritt had two of the homers while Cole Harting and Wyatt Stapp also cleared the fences on a beautiful sunny afternoon at the ball park..
 
A three-run sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie after Merritt hit a one-out liner that eked over the fence in right center. Paul Komistek followed with a huge two-out single that scored Jake Murray and Eric Santiago to give UC a 6-3 edge.

Wichita State 9, Omaha 0 - Box Score
WICHITA, Kan. – Preston Snavely tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out five to help the Wichita State baseball team earn a 9-0 shutout victory over the Omaha Mavericks Saturday, March 27, at Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field.
 
Wichita State (11-8) and Omaha (8-11) are slated to wrap up their three-game series with a 1 p.m. contest Sunday, March 28.
 
Snavely, a senior right-hander who hails from Fort Collins, Colo., allowed zero earned runs on seven hits while striking out five and walking none on 101 pitches to improve to 2-1 on the mound this season.
 
Jack Sigrist and Paxton Wallace each collected a pair of hits, leading the Shockers at the plate, while Garrett Kocis, Corrigan Bartlett and Ross Cadena each tallied doubles. Wallace, Kocis and Bartlett all drove in a team-best two runs in the shutout win.

Elon 2, No. 8 East Carolina 1 - Box Score
ELON, N.C. – Spencer Bauer and Brian Edgington combined to strike out 14 as Elon picked up a weekend series split after earning a 2-1 win over No. 8 East Carolina Saturday afternoon at Latham Park. With the win the Phoenix improves to 6-10 while the Pirates drop to 17-5.
 
Bauer (1-1) tossed a season-high five innings allowing one run (earned) on four hits with a walk and a career-best eight strikeouts. Brian Edgington notched his first save after working four scoreless frames where he gave up four hits, walked one and fanned six.
 
Trailing 1-0 heading to the home half of the fourth inning, Elon put up a pair of runs taking its first lead of the two-game set, 2-1. Cole Reynolds led off with a single to right field and Nick Cicci deposited the first pitch he saw from Jake Kuchmaner in the frame over the left field wall for his second round tripper of the season.
 
Kuchmaner (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season surrendering two runs (both earned) on five hits with six strikeouts. The lefty fanned a pair of batters in the second and sixth innings and had one in each of the third and fifth stanzas. C.J. Mayhue, who appeared in his team-leading 12th game, worked two perfect innings registering three strikeouts to push his season total to 32 over 23.0 innings.

No. 6 Texas Tech 8, USF 0 - Box Score
LUBBOCK, TEXAS (March 27, 2021) – The USF Bulls (9-11) were shutout for the first time this year on Saturday evening in an 8-0 loss at No. 6 Texas Tech (18-4), 8-0. The Texas Tech Red Raiders have won the first two contests of the three-game series.
 
After allowing nine extra-base hits, including four homer runs in the opener, USF limited the high-powered Texas Tech offense to just two extra-base hits in the setback Saturday.
 
Matt Ruiz tallied three of the Bulls' seven hits in the ballgame. The true freshman leads USF with 10-multi hit games and has recorded three hits in five different outings this year.
 
Texas Tech plated a pair of runs off USF starter Dylan Burns in the bottom of the first inning which proved to be enough offense for the night. The Red Raiders tacked on single runs in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh frames, and closed the night with two more runs in the eighth.

Grand Canyon 8, Tulane 7 - Box Score
NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University baseball team (10-11) fell to Grand Canyon University (10-12-1) in a closely contested 8-7 ballgame on Saturday at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
 
The Green Wave came up just one hit short in their comeback bid as the defense and pitching struggled early in the game.
 
GCU struck first for the second day in a row with four runs in the top of the first. Tulane responded immediately in the bottom of the inning thanks to a two-run home run from freshman Bennett Lee. The homer marked Lee's third straight game with at least one extra-base hit.
 
GCU got two more runs in the top of the second to make it a 6-2 ballgame, but Tulane battled back again in the bottom of the frame. With runners on first and third with one out, freshman Chase Engelhard scored Jared Hart on an RBI groundout to trim GCU's lead to 6-3.

UT Arlington 12, Houston 7 (Game 1) - Box Score
HOUSTON – Houston designated hitter Ryan Hernandez matched a program and conference single-game record with three home runs, but the Cougars were out-slugged, 12-7 by UT Arlington in the first of two games Saturday afternoon from Don Sanders Field at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park.
 
Hernandez (3-for-4) became the first Cougar since Connor Wong in 2017 to accomplish the feat. The Boston, Massachusetts, native, who also became the seventh student-athlete in school history to hit three homers, now has 12 in 33 games at Houston.
 
UTA (9-12) jumped out to a 7-1 lead thanks to a grand slam from Josh Minjarez in the third. The senior (3-for-4) struck two homers and logged eight RBIs. The Mavericks scored multiple runs in four different frames including jumping out to three runs in the first off Cougar starter Blake Schultz.
 
Hernandez struck a three-run home run in the third, clocked a 424-foot solo shot in the fifth and matched the program record with a two-run homer in the seventh. His six RBIs marked a career high and came in his second start since returning from injury.

UT Arlington 8, Houston 7 (Game 2) - Box Score
HOUSTON – Houston Baseball's comeback fell short as the Cougars stranded the tying run at third base in the ninth inning in an 8-7 loss to UT Arlington on Saturday night from Don Sanders Field at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park.
 
Freshman Luke Almendarez opened up scoring for the Cougars (11-11) in the first inning, scoring on a Steven Rivas RBI-double down the right field line. Will Pendergrass followed, clubbing a two-run home run, his second homer in three games, to put Houston up 3-0.
 
Houston second baseman Brad Burckel erased a one-run deficit with a home run in the fourth. The two-run long ball was his fourth of the season. The sophomore extended his on-game base streak to eight games in the loss.
 
UTA (10-12) scored four runs between the sixth and eighth, highlighted by two runs in the seventh. The Mavericks were led by senior Connor Aube (2-for-5, one home run and three RBIs) and junior Boone Montgomery (3-for-4, three runs, and one RBI).
 
The Cougars scored twice in the ninth to make things interesting. Burckel led off with a single into center and scored on a wild pitch. Brandon Uhse drove in Dylan Post on an RBI-groundout before a strikeout eventually stranded Samuel Tormos at third.

Troy 2, UCF 1 - Box Score
Troy, Ala. – The UCF baseball team was unable to clinch a series victory on Saturday, falling 2-1 to Troy in the second game of the weekend-series.
 
Starting pitcher Jack Sinclair set the tone, holding the Trojans scoreless through the first four innings of the contest, tossing 5.0 IP and allowing just two runs. Zack Hunsicker came in to toss a scoreless final three frames of the contest, holding Troy to just the two runs in the game.
 
Trojan pitching proved too much for the Black and Gold offense, holding UCF to one run on six hits in the game. The Knights' only run came off of a fourth-inning Ben McCabe home run, his ninth of the year, as he would pick up four hits including the home run and a double. McCabe's two extra-base hits were UCF's only hits for extra bases in the game.