2013 Conference USA baseball tournament

2013 Conference USA
baseball tournament
Teams8
Format2 division round-robin and championship game
Finals site
ChampionsRice (5th title)
Winning coachWayne Graham (5th title)
MVPChristian Stringer (Rice)
2013 Conference USA baseball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
No. 14 Rice  ‍†‍‡‍y 15 – 9   .625 44 – 20   .688
Southern Miss  ‍‍‍ 15 – 9   .625 30 – 27   .526
East Carolina  ‍‍‍ 14 – 10   .583 31 – 26   .544
Memphis  ‍‍‍ 14 – 10   .583 35 – 24   .593
UCF  ‍‍‍ 13 – 11   .542 29 – 30   .492
Houston  ‍‍‍ 13 – 11   .542 36 – 22   .621
Tulane  ‍‍‍ 11 – 13   .458 30 – 28   .517
UAB  ‍‍‍ 7 – 17   .292 23 – 36   .390
Marshall  ‍‍‍ 6 – 18   .250 20 – 34   .370
† – Conference champion
‡ – Tournament champion
y – Invited to the NCAA tournament
As of June 8, 2013[1]
Rankings from Collegiate Baseball


The 2013 Conference USA baseball tournament was held from May 22 through 26 at Reckling Park in Houston, Texas.[2][3] The annual tournament determines the conference champion of the Division I Conference USA for college baseball. Rice won their fifth tournament championship and claimed the league's automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA Division I baseball tournament.[4] This is the last of 19 athletic championship events held by the conference in the 2012–13 academic year.[5]

The tournament was established in 1996, Conference USA's first season of play. Entering the event, Tulane has won the most championships, with five. Among current teams, only Marshall and Memphis have never won a title.

This was to be the third year of a three-year contract placing the event at Trustmark Park, home of an Atlanta Braves Class-AA affiliate in Pearl, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, Mississippi. However, the venue opted out of the contract, leaving Conference USA seeking a new home for the 2013 tournament. The conference announced that the tournament would instead be held at Reckling Park.[2][3]

Seeding and format

The tournament continued the round-robin tournament format introduced in 2010. The top eight finishers from the regular season were seeded one through eight and divided into two pools. The winners of each pool then met in a single championship game.

Team W L Pct. GB Seed
Rice 15 9 .625 – 1
Southern Miss 15 9 .625 – 2
East Carolina 14 10 .583 1 3
Memphis 14 10 .583 1 4
UCF 13 11 .565 2 5
Houston 13 11 .565 2 6
Tulane 11 13 .435 4 7
UAB 7 17 .292 8 8
Marshall 6 18 .250 9 –

Bracket

Division A RICE MEM UCF UAB Overall
1 Rice W 10–1 W 5–1 W 3–1 3-0
4 Memphis L 1–10 W 6–1 W 6–5 2-1
5 UCF L 1–5 L 1–6 L 1–5 0-3
8 UAB L 1-3 L 5–6 W 5–1 1-2
Division B USM ECU HOU TUL Overall
2 Southern Miss L 7–8 W 4–2 W 10–7 2-1
3 East Carolina W 8–7 L 4–9 L 5–6 1-2
6 Houston L 2–4 W 9–4 L 2–3 1-2
7 Tulane L 7–10 W 6–5 W 3–2 2-1
Finals
   
A Rice 5*
B Southern Miss 4

All-Tournament Team

The following players were named to the All-Tournament Team.[6]

Pos Name School
C Keaton Aldridge Memphis
IF Shane Hoelscher Rice
IF Zach Houchins East Carolina
IF Justin Montemayor Houston
IF Christian Stringer Rice
OF Blake Brown Southern Miss
OF Leon Byrd Rice
OF Dillon Day Southern Miss
DH Drew Reynolds East Carolina
P Jake Drehoff Southern Miss
P Austin Kubitza Rice
P John Simms Rice
P Jordan Stephens Rice

Most Valuable Player

Christian Stringer was named Tournament MVP. Stringer was an infielder for Rice who was 7–14 in the tournament for a .500 average with one RBI, one Stolen Base, and five runs scored.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ "2013 Baseball Extended Standings" (PDF). Conference USA. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  2. ^ a b Joseph Duarte (November 15, 2012). "Rice to host 2013 C-USA baseball tourney". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  3. ^ a b TJ Werre (November 20, 2012). "C-USA Baseball Tournament Leaves Pearl". wjtv.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  4. ^ "Conference USA Baseball Format for 2013". conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  5. ^ "2012-13 Conference USA Championship Schedule". conferenceusa.com. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  6. ^ a b "2013 Baseball Extended Standings" (PDF). Conference USA. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  7. ^ "Rice Wins C-USA Baseball Championship". Conference USA. May 26, 2013. Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.