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American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Preview

The Huskies are heading to the conference tournament in Clearwater as hot as can be, but what have the other teams been up to?

Ian Bethune/The UConn Blog

The UConn Huskies baseball squad has won nine contests in a row. Two weeks ago, UConn was swept by East Carolina at home and all at-large NCAA Tournament hopes seemed gone. With an RPI in the 70s, where an RPI in the 40s is typically on the high end of at-large bids given out, the Huskies had their backs against the wall.

They rattled off midweek wins against UMassNortheastern and Rhode Island, and then swept Central Florida and South Florida. They shut out opponents twice and outscored them 71-48. The streak has also included a dramatic come-from-behind win against Northeastern.

After the final weekend of regular season play in the American, the standings look like this:

Teams Record Games Back RPI (as of 5/23)
Tulane 15-7 --- 27
East Carolina 15-8-1 0.5 24
UConn 14-9 1.5 51
Cincinnati 13-10-1 2.5 106
Houston 11-12 4.5 72
Memphis 9-15 7 219
South Florida 8-16 8 174
Central Florida 8-16 8 141

UConn finished third in the standings and will play Memphis in their first game of the AAC Tournament on Wednesday at 3 p.m. UConn won the regular season series against the Tigers, winning each of the first two games, but lost the chance to sweep mid comeback in a rain-shortened Sunday game. Memphis is 4-7 in their 11 games after the UConn series, getting a win each against UT Martin, Tulane, Cincinnati and Houston.

This is what the bracket will look like:

In their second game, the Huskies will play whoever matches their result in the game between South Florida and East Carolina, which is at 11 a.m. Wednesday. If they beat Memphis, this game will be Thursday at 7 p.m., if they lose it will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

UConn played East Carolina in two three-game series this season, going 1-5. In the first series, each game was hard-fought, losing a pair of one-run games, one of which was an extra-inning affair. The Huskies' victory was a 5-1 win, where they pulled away in the late innings. The second series did not go as well and UConn was handed their final three losses of the regular season.

The Huskies played much better against the Bulls, sweeping them last weekend by a combined score of 21-7. South Florida is 2-9 in their last 11 games, with both wins coming against East Carolina.

Winning the first two games is very important, as the two teams that go undefeated through their first games get Friday off before the Saturday semifinal. They also only have to win once on Saturday to get to the winner-take-all final on Sunday; if a team with one loss wins a semifinal, they just replay the game later that day.

All of the games will be featured on the American Digital Network until the final, which will be on ESPNews. You can find the American Digital Network here.