East Carolina, Houston, South Florida and Wichita State all picked up series-opening wins on Friday, February 24 in American Athletic Conference baseball action.

Saturday, February 24
Houston 14, Utah 5 - Box Score
Wichita State 5, Utah Tech 3 (10 innings) - Box Score
East Carolina 6, North Carolina 5 - Box Score
South Florida 5, Florida Atlantic 1 - Box Score
Florida 13, Cincinnati 6 - Box Score
St. John's 6, Tulane 5 - Box Score
Youngstown State 6, Memphis 2 - Box Score

Houston 14, Utah 5 - Box Score
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Three Houston baseball players blasted home runs in the Cougars' 14-5 win over Utah on the first day of the Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field on Friday afternoon.

With the win, Houston improves to 2-3 on the season while Utah falls to 1-4. Cougar pitching limited the Utes to four hits and held Utah to just one hit until the squad broke through with three in the eighth inning. 

Anthony Tulimero, Brandon Burckel and Drew Bianco all hit home runs. It was all three players' first home runs of the season.

Maddux Miller (1-0) secured his first win of the season, pitching 3.1 hitless innings with four strikeouts. Utah starter Cam Day (1-1) was saddled for the loss after allowing seven runs (six earned) and four walks alongside five hits in 3.1 innings.
Tulimero was a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

Wichita State 5, Utah Tech 3 (10 innings) - Box Score
ST. GEORGE, Utah – Garrett Pennington delivered a go-ahead double in the top of the tenth inning and Caden Favors fired a career-best 4.2 innings of shutout relief as Wichita State rallied for a 5-3 win against Utah Tech on Friday afternoon.

With the game deadlocked at 3-3 into the top of the tenth, Jordan Rogers led off the inning by working a walk against Utah Tech reliever Zach Thomas (0-1). Pennington followed by slamming the first pitch he saw into the right field corner, which was then overrun by Trailblazers right fielder Tyson Fisher. The misplay allowed Rogers to score all the way from first and sent Pennington around to third, giving the Shockers their first lead of the day at 4-3. Payton Tolle also picked on the first pitch from Thomas, grounding a sharp single through a drawn-in infield to score Pennington with an important insurance run.

Favors (1-0) did the rest, pitching around a one-out walk in the bottom of the tenth to close out the victory. He entered with runners at second and third in the sixth inning and just one out, stranded both, then left the bases loaded in the seventh to preserve the tie. Each of Favors three strikeouts ended an inning with a runner on base.

East Carolina 6, North Carolina 5 - Box Score
GREENVILLE, N.C. – In front of a Clark-LeClair Stadium record crowd of 6,003 Friday night, No. 11 East Carolina scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth to erase a 3-0 deficit and hold on for a thrilling 6-5 non-conference win over No. 12 North Carolina.
 
Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman (1-1) worked 0.2 scoreless innings and struck out a pair to earn his first victory of the season while Dalton Pence (1-1) was saddled with the loss after surrendering four runs (three earned) on three hits and a walk. Freshman LHP Zach Root notched his first collegiate save, eventually erasing the visitors in the top of the ninth with the tying run at third base.
 
Jacob Starling, one of the offensive catalysts in the consequential eighth inning, finished with two hits, two RBI and a run scored while four other ECU batters drove in a run each. Mac Horvath paced North Carolina with a 3-for-5 performance.
 
Down 3-0 going into the bottom of the eighth, ECU's Alec Makarewicz worked a walk on a full count to lead things off before Josh Moylan ripped a one-out RBI double down the right field line to plate pinch runner Ryley Johnson. Joey Berini followed with a two-bagger of his own down the left field line to drive in Moylan and pull the Pirates within one at 3-2. A Jacob Jenkins-Cowart single moved Berini to third and Lane Hoover hit a comebacker to the mound that was mishandled and allowed pinch runner Nathan Chrismon to cross home plate and knot the score at three.
 
With the crowd in full throat at that point, Starling laced a two-run single to center field to propel ECU in front for good. Luke Nowak put the exclamation point on the rally with an RBI single that pushed Starling across.

South Florida 5, Florida Atlantic 1 - Box Score
BOCA RATON (February 24, 2023) – For the second straight game, the University of South Florida Bulls (3-3) handed an in-state foe their first loss of the season with a 5-1 victory in the opener of a three-game weekend series at FAU (4-1) on Friday night.

Hunter Mink logged career highs in innings pitched (6.0) and strikeouts (6) at FAU. H. Mink improved to 2-0 on the season after allowing one run on five hits in his second consecutive Friday night start.

South Florida got on the board first with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the third inning. In the fourth frame, Jackson Mayo blasted a two-run homer and Daniel Cantu added an RBI-single. Mayo's first home run of the season came on Wednesday at No. 7 Florida and he tallied homers in two straight games for the second time in his young career on Friday night.

Florida 13, Cincinnati 6 - Box Score
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Cincinnati baseball team dropped the first game of its series at No. 7-ranked Florida, 13-6, on Friday night at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Fla. 
 
For the Bearcats (2-3), redshirt junior first baseman Ryan Nicholson went 2-for-4 with a triple, homerun, RBI and walk. Sophomore Kerrington Cross went 1-for-3 with a double, two RBI and two walks. 
 
Redshirt junior JP Sponseller added a double and two RBI in the loss. 
 
The Bearcats used four pitchers in the game. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Garrett Harker (0-1) allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits in 3.1 innings and took the loss. 

St. John's 6, Tulane 5 - Box Score
NEW ORLEANS  - The Tulane baseball team (0-5) dropped its home opener to St. John's (2-2) 6-5 on Friday night inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
 
Green Wave reliever Michael Fowler (0-1) was tagged with the loss, giving up an unearned run in one-third of an inning. The Red Storm's Vincent Bianchi claimed the relief victory with three strikeouts and a hit batter in an inning's worth of work. Chuck Sanzio got his first save of the season, navigating a perfect ninth frame for the visitors.
  
Junior Dylan Carmouche got the start for the Green Wave and pitched six innings of four-hit, two-run baseball. He struck out eight and gave up no free passes, fanning all three SJU batters on just 10 pitches to begin the game.

St. John's put two runs of its own on the board in the top of the fourth. However, Tulane tied it in the bottom of the frame when designated hitter Teo Banks laced a run-scoring single to right.
 
St. John's got one back in the top of the eighth, only for first baseman Brady Marget to send a mammoth solo homer over the right-center field fence in the bottom of the frame, making the score 5-3.
 
The Red Storm rallied though and scored three runs in the top of the ninth on three hits and two Tulane errors to move back in front by one, 6-5.

Youngstown State 6, Memphis 2 - Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The University of Memphis baseball team lost the opening game of the weekend's four-game series with Youngstown State, 6-2, on Friday night at FedExPark Avron Fogelman Field. The Memphis pitching staff struck out 16 Penguins, but the Tiger offense was outhit 11-to-6 in the loss.
 
The Penguins struck first on a bases-clearing, two-out single to right field in the top of the second inning. Senior southpaw Dalton Fowler kept zeroes on the board the rest of his outing, although he worked in and out of trouble frequently. Fowler allowed five walks but struck out 10 in 5.2 innings of work, giving up just three earned runs on seven hits.

The Tigers chipped away at the YSU lead by loading the bases in the bottom of the fourth. Anthony Hansen led the inning off with a single, Austin Baskin walked and Cameron Benson singled before catcher Jonah Sutton walked to force in a run and make the score 3-1. Back-to-back strikeouts by Memphis left the bases loaded.

Fowler went 5.2 IP and racked up 10 strikeouts in the game but took the loss. Through two starts, he has 16 punchouts over 10.1 IP. Carson Stinnett was effective in relief, allowing just one hit in two innings of work and striking out three Penguins.