AAC baseball in full swing heading into interleague play

The American Athletic Conference began interleague play this past weekend and saw a couple favorites make their move toward the top of the standings.

While other teams hoping stay afloat early on in the league championship hunt fell to the cellar. Other teams, like Tulane and Connecticut, found themselves battling the elements only to see their series’ finale cancelled.

Three teams sit atop the AAC standings: East Carolina, Central Florida and Cincinnati. While the Pirates are one of the league favorites for postseason play, Tulane and Houston still have an argument left to play out for an AAC title battle that is still getting underway.

Rankings and Standings

East Carolina is the lead-pony of the AAC according to voters as the Pirates were ranked in three national college baseball polls this week. Voters from Baseball America, D1 Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) all cast votes for the team in their respective rankings with the D1Baseball.com rankings elevating the Pirates highest at No. 16.

Houston also received some acclaim from three rankings committees as Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game included the Cougars in their Top 25 lists for the week beginning April 4th. The Cougars fell from the prestigious board of the USA Today Coaches Poll, though, the team still received mention from the service as receiving votes just shy of the top 25.

Tulane was the only other AAC team to be ranked by a voting service as Collegiate Baseball ranked them No. 27 nationally. The Green Wave were also mentioned in D1Baseball.com’s “also considered” section, though not receiving a top 25 ranking from the website. When it comes to the computer rankings, however, Tulane received the lion’s share of the acclaim over and above the rest of the AAC, as seen by its two top 25 rankings from the Massey Ratings and the Sagarin Ratings.

East Carolina had a positive showing last weekend going 3-1 in four games including a mid-week victory over UNC Wilmington, 9-6, and a home series win over Houston. The Pirates lost the Sunday matchup with the Cougars, 6-1, after winning the first two games in the series by a combined score of 8-2.

The setback losses to the Pirates, coupled with their loss to rival Texas A&M last Tuesday, put Houston in a 1-3 hole over their last four games. Prior to this stretch, the Cougars were winners of eight of their last nine games dating back to mid-March.

Central Florida went 2-2 last week, beating Memphis in a road conference series but losing to Jacksonville on the road, 8-3, in a mid-week meeting. Memphis has now lost six of their last eight contests beginning with a loss at Murray State two weeks ago.

Cincinnati bested South Florida two games to one after shutting out Indiana on the road last Tuesday, 5-0. The Bearcats, prior to their loss against Xavier on March 26^th , were on a 10-game win streak. They now look to get some of that magic back riding a two-game win streak. South Florida was unable to get in a mid-week game last week against Stetson due to weather.

Tulane and Connecticut were unable to finalize their weekend series as snow on the field in Storrs canceled the rubber match between the two schools. Tulane — who earlier in the week beat in-state rival LSU, 7-1 — was eager to put their series-opening loss to UConn behind them but were unable to tie for the conference lead because of the weather-induced cancellation. Connecticut also snuffed out a regional rival during their mid-week parlay last week on the road against Boston College, 9-4.

Weekly Conference Awards

Player of the Week: Grant Witherspoon, 1B/OF, Tulane

Pitcher of the Week: Jimmy Boyd, RHP, East Carolina

Mid-week Games

Cincinnati has two home games during the week before the team gets back to conference action this weekend. On Tuesday the team will face Wright State (18-9) before battling Indiana (13-13) the next night. The Raiders of Wright State have a 53 RPI (RPI via WarrenNolan.com) and play in the Horizon League where they own a 7-2 record. They are 8-2 in their last 10 matchups. Indiana has an RPI flirting with 200 but have won six of their last 10 games. Indiana last played Cincinnati, in Evansville, where they were shut out 5-0.

Memphis will take on SEC foe, and in-state rival, Arkansas on Wednesday at AutoZone Park. The Razorbacks are 19-9 this year, are winless in road matchups in four tries and have lost six of their last 10 games. Arkansas last played an AAC team earlier this year when the team battled Houston at the Houston College Classic and mugged the Cougars 12-3.

This Tuesday, Central Florida will face a tough Florida Atlantic team with a 21-4 record and a 21 RPI. The Owls are 8-1 in Conference USA and have won eight of their last 10 games.

Houston ventures east on Tuesday to take on a McNeese State team that is 14-11 on the year with a 182 RPI. Thus far, the Cougars are 4-3 on the road and have a 6-3 record against similarly ranked teams.

Tulane will host another in-state foe this week. This time it will be the Lions of Southeastern Louisiana who have a 22-7 record overall and a 11-1 record in the Southland Conference. Southeastern is 9-1 over its last 10 contests.

East Carolina will face the Elon Phoenix of the Colonial Athletic Assocation on Tuesday. Elon owns a plus 200 RPI and are 2-8 in their last 10 games.

South Florida will give it another go against Stetson this week, trying to complete their rained out matchup from last Tuesday’s schedule. Stetson is 15-13 on the year and have earned a 170 RPI.

Connecticut will play twice during the work week, once on the road against Northeastern (13-12) and again at home against Hartford (18-6). Northeastern has a 140 RPI and hails from the Colonial Athletic Association while Hartford has a 28 RPI, have won nine of its last 10 games and play in the America East Conference.

Weekend Conference Series

• East Carolina at Tulane

The marquee matchup of this coming weekend: East Carolina heads to New Orleans to face likely what is its toughest in-conference competition, Tulane. These two teams lead the league in hitting: the Pirates lead the league in batting average (.312) and on-base-percentage (.399); while Tulane is second in the conference in average (.280) and second in OBP (.381) and lead the AAC in home runs (28).

East Carolina holds a distinct advantage in pitching, besting the Green Wave by more than half a run in team ERA. However, Tulane’s pitchers have a collective batting average against them of .249 whereas East Carolina’s is slightly higher at .252. The Green Wave also hold a higher strikeout-to-walk ratio. Regardless of the outcome, it will be a tremendous matchup of elite AAC baseball talent this weekend in Nola.

"The American Conference is no joke, it's tough stuff out here" – @ECUBASEBALL pitcher Jimmy Boyd https://t.co/1oQf0KBMae

— American Baseball (@American_BSB) April 2, 2016

• Connecticut at Cincinnati

Connecticut heads to Ohio to take on the Cincinnati Bearcats this weekend as the Huskies hope to peek out above .500 on the year and the Bearcats would like to continue their surprising 2-1 start to conference play. Cincinnati, though winning its series against South Florida last weekend, will need to do better than its current statistics show in team ERA and batting average if it wishes to continue its winning ways.

The Bearcats have hit .248 on the year and pitchers have amassed an ERA of 4.07. Playing at home should help Cincinnati but playing a team that hits .271 as a team is a lot easier than playing a South Florida team that bats .245.

• Central Florida at Houston

UCF will hope to defy the numbers as its hitters will face the league’s top pitching attack against Houston, which has a team ERA of 2.32. Batters are hitting close to the Mendoza with a .211 average against the Cougars. Houston will likely have vengeance on its mind after losing the opening AAC series against the league leading East Carolina Pirates.

NEWS | @SethR21 Named @NCBWA National Pitcher of the Month! Posted a 4-0 record & a 0.58 ERA in March #M64 pic.twitter.com/OsfVzsJFSY

— Houston Baseball (@UHCougarBB) April 4, 2016

• Memphis at South Florida

It will be a battle of the cellar dwellers as the Tigers take on the Bulls in South Florida. Both teams will enter the weekend with a 1-2 record in conference play and will be looking to even out their deficits. South Florida’s team ERA ranks third among conference members and should prove to be a tough hill to climb for Memphis batters whose own batting average ranks third to last in the AAC.

That being said, even with stout pitching, will the Bulls be able to score any runs with their conference low .245 batting average?