By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The top-seeded UTSA Roadrunners will take on the No. 5 Tulane Green Wave today at noon (Central time) in the winners’ bracket at the American Baseball Championship.
Later today, sixth-seeded East Carolina will play No. 2 Charlotte. While the losers will play on Friday, the winners will move into the semifinals scheduled for Saturday. The tournament is double elimination through the semifinals, while the a winner-take-all game in the finals is set for Sunday.
All games are being held at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.
Both Tulane and UTSA scored victories on Tuesday on the opening day of the tournament. After Tulane beat Florida Atlantic, 6-3, UTSA took the field and rallied for a 4-2 victory over Rice. Now they play today for a chance to move into the semifinals.
The champion of the American Athletic Conference’s postseason event in Clearwater will be rewarded with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If UTSA comes up short, the Pat Hallmark-coached Roadrunners remain a strong candidate to gain an at-large NCAA bid based on their record (43-11), their regular-season title (23-4 in conference) and their No. 22 standing in the national rating percentage index.
Since the AAC baseball conference formed for the 2014 season, each team that has won or shared a regular-season title has received an at-large bid to an NCAA regional. UTSA clinched a share of the AAC regular-season title on May 4 after it swept a three-game road series at South Florida. It clinched the title outright on May 9 with a road victory at East Carolina.
When UTSA swept Rice last week in San Antonio, it secured victories in all nine AAC series on its schedule. Five of them were three-game sweeps. By hitting the 40-win plateau on May 15 and reaching No. 42 after the regular-season finale last Saturday, UTSA became only the seventh AAC team in history to take 40-plus victories into the conference tournament. The previous six all eventually received NCAA bids.
NCAA selections will be announced Monday.
Tuesday’s results
(Opening day)
Tulane 6, FAU 3
UTSA 4, Rice 2
Charlotte 7, Wichita State 1
East Carolina 9, South Florida 4
Wednesday’s results
FAU 8, Rice 6 (Rice eliminated)
South Florida 4, Wichita State 3 (Wichita State eliminated)
Thursday
(Winners’ bracket, times are Central)
UTSA vs. Tulane, noon
East Carolina vs. Charlotte, 47 minutes after the first game
Friday
(Elimination games, times are Central)
FAU vs. Tulane or UTSA, noon
South Florida vs. East Carolina or Charlotte, 47 minutes after the first game
Saturday
Semifinals
UTSA or Tulane vs TBA, 8 a.m.
East Carolina or Charlotte vs. TBA, 47 minutes after the first game
Games to follow (if necessary) to complete double elimination
Sunday
Finals
First pitch, 11 a.m.