Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Baseball Enters Conference USA Championship As No. 7 Seed
5/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2009
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Marshall University baseball team enters this week's Conference USA Championship as the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 2 Rice on Wednesday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m. ET at Pete Taylor Park.
The Thundering Herd and Owls will play the second game of the tournament and join No. 3 Houston and No. 6 UAB, who kickoff action at 10:00 a.m. ET, on one side of the bracket.
If Marshall wins then it will compete against the winner of the UAB/Houston contest at 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday. Should the Herd lose, it will face the loser of the Blazers and Cougars at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The other half of the bracket features No.1 East Carolina and eighth-seeded UCF in that side's opening day contest. The second game will pit fourth-seed Tulane against tournament host and No. 5 seed Southern Miss.
Both sides of the bracket follow a double-elimination format with the winners advancing to a one-game championship, scheduled for Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. ET.
Marshall is yet to face UAB in a conference tournament game but has faced Houston twice since joining the league in 2005. Last season, the Herd and Cougars met in the championship game with Houston hanging on to a thrilling 3-2 victory. The Cougars also took a 9-1 decision in postseason action in 2006.
Marshall finished its regular season with a home series against Tulane and won the series opener 9-2 before dropping the next two to enter tournament action with an overall record of 22-30, 9-15 in C-USA. The Green Wave took Friday's game 11-2 before earning the series victory with a 5-3 rain-shortened decision on Saturday.
Rice concluded its regular-season campaign in Birmingham, Ala. and lost two out of three games to UAB to finish its season 35-15 overall, 16-8 in league action. The Owls are currently ranked ninth in the ESPN/USA Today and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) polls.
Earlier this season, the teams played a three game set at Reckling Park in Houston in April and the Owls claimed the first two before Marshall knocked of the then-No. 1 Owls, 11-7 to give the program its first-ever win over the perennial College World Series contenders. The win was highlighted by a two-homer performance from sophomore slugger Victor Gomez and a pair of four-run innings.
Each game of the tournament will be streamed live on ConferenceUSA.com. The championship game will be televised on a same-day tape delay basis by CBS College Sports at 6:30 p.m. (CT). The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. A link to championship central can be found below.
C-USA Tournament Central
Each game can also be followed via GameTracker on www.herdzone.com and can be heard on the radio on WRVC 930 AM.
