Rice has continued to distance itself from the rest of the pack in Conference USA. The No. 7 Owls swept a three-game series from No. 24 East Carolina to improve to 13-2 in league play. With second place Houston dropping two-of-three at UAB, Rice now owns a 3.5 game lead in the conference standings. Southern Miss and Tulane renewed their long-standing rivalry and the home standing Green Wave took two of three on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Marshall swept its series against UCF in Charleston to move to .500 in C-USA play and overall. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Conference USA, Conference USA Recap, Dallas Baptist University, East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UCF

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Notre Dame 5 Northern Illinois 4

CHICAGO, Ill. - The Northern Illinois baseball team could not snap No. 29 Notre Dame’s ten-game winning streak as the Huskies fell, 5-4, in front of a school-record 4,600 fans at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday night.

In a game that had four lead changes, the Fighting Irish (23-9-1) came out on top after a three-base Huskie error in the eighth inning allowed Notre Dame’s Ross Brezovsky to give the Irish a 5-4 lead on an RBI groundout.

The Huskies (15-17) plated two runs in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead off an RBI single from Justin Behm (Downers Grove, Ill./North) that scored Pat Minogue (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central), who led off the game with a single to center. A sacrifice fly from Dave Reynolds (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) plated Jeff Thomas (Loves Park, Ill./Harlem) for NIU’s second run. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alabama, Bethune Cookman, Big East, Big Ten, Conference USA, Kentucky, Louisville, MAC, Morehead State, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Florida, Southern Miss, SWAC

Houston sits atop the Conference USA baseball standings after sweeping a three-game series from No. 25 UCF at Cougar Field. UH is just ahead of Rice, which swept a three-game series at Memphis. East Carolina won two-of-three at Southern Miss, while Marshall and Tulane each won one game before tying on Sunday.

Houston’s first league sweep since 2006 was aided by second baseman Ryan Lormand, who went 7-for-12 in the series. Saturday’s middle game saw a strong pitching performance by Ty Stuckey. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Conference USA, East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Presbyterian College, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB

Southern Miss pitching ace Barry Bowden proved on Friday that he was not only among the best pitchers in Conference USA, but is gaining recognition as one of the nation’s better hurlers.

He went up against Rice All-American right-hander Ryan Berry last Friday in Houston and walked away the winner in a 1-0 game, putting his team in position to be the first C-USA squad to win a series against the Owls since the Houston-based college joined the league in 2005.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Conference USA, Southern Miss

From Conference USA release:

It was quite a week for the East Carolina Pirates. After opening a five-game schedule with a wild 20-13 win at Old Dominion, ECU picked up a road win at Virginia Commonwealth and then returned home for the annual Keith LeClair Classic. Bad weather forced Friday’s games to be cancelled, setting up a Saturday doubleheader. The Pirates responded, defeating Pittsburgh in the first game and then knocking off No. 15 Michigan, 6-5, in the second game. On Sunday, ECU downed an always-tough Georgia Southern team, 9-3, to capture the tournament title. Brandon Henderson batted .556 (5-for-9) in the tournament, while Ryan Wood extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Conference USA, East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UCF

FROM PRESS RELEASE
DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released the Pro-Line Athletic National Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 4, today. Kentucky junior outfielder Sawyer Carroll was named National Hitter of the Week, while Southern Miss senior right-hander Barry Bowden and Norfolk State’s senior right-hander Joey Seal were named National Co-Pitchers of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Top Players, Conference USA, Kentucky, MEAC, NCBWA, Norfolk State, Players of the Week, SEC, Southern Miss

We will be providing Daily Recaps on Conference USA throughout the season. All the recaps are excerpts from the Press Releases. Click on the respective schools link at the bottom of the recap for the full release.

Southern Miss 6 Lipscomb 3

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss hitters started cold but rallied to overcome a early 3-0 deficit to win 6-3 Saturday evening in front of 3,322 fans at Pete Taylor Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Atlantic Sun, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, Conference USA Recap, East Carolina, FAMU, Horizon League, Houston, Lipscomb, Marshall, MEAC, Memphis, Ohio State, Pacific, SEC, South Carolina, Southern Conference, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UIC, Western Carolina

We will be providing Daily Recaps on Conference USA throughout the season. All the recaps are from the school’s press releases.

Central Florida 17, Florida A&M 1

ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - A festive crowd of 1,282 ventured to Opening Day at Jay Bergman Field Friday and had a lot to cheer about as UCF routed Florida A&M, 17-1. The Knights’ 17 runs tied a school record for most in a season-opener, as they also Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Atlantic Sun, Ball State, Big East, Big West, Conference USA, Conference USA Recap, FAMU, Houston, Lipscomb, Long Beach State, MAC, Marshall, Memphis, Pacific, Rice, Seton Hall, Southern Conference, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UCF, UIC, Western Carolina

HATTIESBURG - What does a fifth consecutive NCAA baseball regional appearance get Southern Miss?One of the toughest schedules in the nation.

Southern Miss will play three teams that played in last year’s College World Series (Mississippi State, Rice and Cal State Fullerton) and 10 teams that played in a NCAA Regional, including Louisiana-Lafayette, New Orleans and Ole Miss.

“The early part of the season is very demanding with a tough eight-game streak at Louisiana-Lafayette, Cal State Fullerton, Ole Miss, New Orleans and a neutral site game with Miami (Ohio),” Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer said. “I think we can handle this schedule with our veteran leadership.”

The road to a sixth regional appearance begins today at home when the Golden Eagles opens the season today at 4 p.m. in the first game of a weekend series against Lipscomb. First pitch on Saturday is set for 3 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

SUN HERALD: Southern Miss faces tough schedule

Tags: Conference USA, Southern Miss

Due to the NCAA’s common start date rule, the baseball season is getting underway a couple of weeks later this year, but opening day has nearly arrived. All nine C-USA baseball teams will be in action this Friday. Tulane will play its first games on campus since the 2006 NCAA Super Regional when it opens the brand-new Greer Field at Turchin Stadium against Illinois-Chicago. Two of C-USA’s nationally-ranked teams open with three-game series’ at ranked opponents, as No. 24 East Carolina visits No. 2 South Carolina and No. 3 Rice travels to No. 13 Long Beach State. Houston, Southern Miss, UAB and UCF each host weekend series.

Team-by-team thumbnails

Tags: Conference USA, East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UCF

We continue to bring you links to SID previews for the 2008 season. We have linked to a bunch of them below.

Southern Mississippi Preview
Stephen F. Austin: Outfield Preview
Michigan State Preview: Infield and Outfield
Missouri Season Preview: Part 3 Infielders and Catchers
TCU Season Preview: Part 1
Purdue Baseball Preview: Part 3
San Diego State Season Preview
Harvard Season Preview

Tags: 2008 Season Preview, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Harvard, Ivy League, Michigan State, Missouri, Mountain West, Purdue, San Diego State, Southern Miss, Southland Conference, Stephen F. Austin, TCU

FROM CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE
Coming off a second straight trip to the College World Series, Rice has been selected as the preseason favorite in the 2008 Conference USA baseball poll, chosen by the league’s nine head coaches. Owls junior outfielder/designated hitter Aaron Luna, a preseason All-American, is the Preseason C-USA Player of the Year. Rice hurler Ryan Berry, a national Freshman of the Year selection by Collegiate Baseball last season, was named as the league’s preseason Pitcher of the Year. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Conference Preview, Conference USA, East Carolina, Houston, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane

FROM PRESS RELEASE
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Twenty-two games against nine different teams that reached last year’s postseason, including three schools that made the College World Series, highlight the Southern Miss 56-game schedule in 2008, which was released today by Golden Eagle coach Corky Palmer.

It is a schedule that Palmer describes as the toughest that the program has faced in this his 11th year at the helm of the program.

“This is the best schedule that we have played since I have been here,” Palmer said. “We added some tough opponents during the midweek and have some tough road trips this season.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Schedules, Conference USA, Southern Miss

We are continuing our coverage of National Signing day with a few more releases from schools. The full list is below.

UAB
Washington State
Texas State
Dayton
Lamar
Southern Miss
Southeast Missouri State
Butler

Tags: 2009 Recruits, Butler, Dayton, Lamar, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Miss, Texas State, UAB, Washington State

November 14th was the first day that recruits for the 2008-2009 school year could sign their letter of intent. We have found many schools have put out a listing of the recruits who have signed already. A couple of highlights are that UCLA has signed three AFLAC All-Americans, Illinois picked up four in-state recruits, and finally Southern Miss picked up three players from Mississippi. The full list is below.

UAB
Illinois
UCLA
Texas State
Nicholls State
Southern Miss
Southeast Missouri State
Auburn
Baylor
TCU

Tags: Auburn, Baylor, Illinois, Nicholls State, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Miss, TCU, Texas State, UAB, UCLA