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Pirates seek reversal of 'fortunes' in final week

Three C-USA teams nationally ranked as tourney time nears

From Bonesville.net staff and C-USA reports

East Carolina will be looking for the 'bullish' mood to return this week as it caps off its regular season with four games in four days.

The Pirates' stock, to use an analogy from Wall Street, has been looking 'bearish' the last couple of weeks — and the trend turned downward at an inopportune time.

ECU (36-15-1, 15-11-1 C-USA) has lost four of its last six, all of which were C-USA games, and has fallen out of the national rankings and out of the running for the league's regular season title.

In a quirky piece of scheduling, the Pirates will face old CAA nemesis UNC-Wilmington on the road Wednesday night, then return home in the wee hours — in time to take on one of Conference USA's hottest teams, Louisville, in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series.

Entering the final week of the regular season, Houston (19-7, 37-14) has a half-game lead over surging Louisville (35-13, 19-8) and Texas Christian (28-24, 19-8). Fourth-place Southern Miss (35-17, 18-8), which whipped the 5th-place Pirates in Hattiesburg two times out of three over the weekend, finds itself just one game out of league lead in the tightest conference race in college baseball.

In addition to the ECU-Louisville pairing, other conference teams will also be playing series on the adjusted Thursday-Friday-Saturday format to allow an extra day off before next week's league tournament (May 22-26) in Kinston.

Houston, Louisville, TCU, USM and ECU have wrapped up berths in the tournament and are jockeying for seedings. Tulane (30-23, 14-13) and South Florida (28-24, 14-13), tied for 6th in the league, have also locked up bids.

Saint Louis (20-26, 10-15) currently holds eighth place, ahead of Cincinnati (23-27-1, 9-17-1) and Charlotte (19-31, 9-18). The Billikens can earn the tourney's only open spot with one victory in its three-game set at Cincinnati and one Charlotte loss in the 49ers' series at Memphis.

Polls: Pirates drop out while Cards and USM leap in

East Carolina, after dropping two of its three games at Southern Miss, dropped out of the rankings altogether. Last week, Baseball America had the Pirates an No. 24 and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll had them ranked 22nd.

Otherwise, it was a good week for C-USA, according to those who define the national pecking order.

Houston moved up in all three polls — from 11th to 10th in Baseball America, from 12th to 11th in the Coaches' Poll and from 13th to 11th in Baseball News — and Louisville and USM, which last week were not ranked, took over the No. 28 and No. 30 spots, respectively, in Baseball News.

Here's the rundown on all Carolinas and C-USA teams which appear in this week's polls:

— ACC member Clemson (42-9) remained fastened with Krazy Glue to the top perch in all three polls for the 7th week in a row.

— ACC member Wake Forest (39-8) is still entrenched at No. 3 in Baseball America and Baseball News and No. 4 in the Coaches' Poll.

— SEC member South Carolina (39-12) held on to its 4th and 5th positions, respectively, in Baseball America and Baseball News, but the Gamecocks slipped a notch to 6th in the Coaches' Poll.

— C-USA member Houston advanced a step to 10th in Baseball America and to 11th in the Coaches' Poll and climbed two rungs to 11th in Baseball News.

— ACC member North Carolina (37-15) held steady at 13th (Baseball News), 14th (Coaches) and 6th (Baseball News).

— C-USA member Louisville, unranked last week, made the Baseball News list at No. 28.

— C-USA member Southern Miss, also unranked a week ago, edged into the Baseball News poll in the 30th and final spot.

The new rankings and standings were released Monday and are based on results of games through Sunday, May 12:

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Rankings Composite (05/13/02)   <<< Top of Page >>>

Carolinas/C-USA teams' rankings summary (last week's ranking in parentheses):

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Conference USA Baseball Standings   <<< Top of Page >>>

Through 05/12:    ---Conference---   ----Overall-----
                  ----------------   ----------------
Team               W   L   T   Pct    W   L   T   Pct
Houston.......... 19   7   0  .731   37  14   0  .725
Louisville....... 19   8   0  .704   35  13   0  .729
Texas Christian.. 19   8   0  .704   28  24   0  .538
Southern Miss.... 18   8   0  .692   35  17   0  .673
East Carolina.... 15  11   1  .574   36  15   1  .702
Tulane........... 14  13   0  .519   30  23   0  .566
South Florida.... 14  13   0  .519   28  24   0  .538
Saint Louis...... 10  15   0  .400   20  26   0  .435
Cincinnati.......  9  17   1  .352   23  27   1  .461
Charlotte........  9  18   0  .333   19  31   0  .380
Memphis..........  7  20   0  .259   16  31   0  .340
UAB..............  6  21   0  .222   15  37   0  .288

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C-USA Baseball Schedule   <<< Top of Page >>>

Weekly Composite (05/13/02 — 05/19/02):

Note: Conference games in bold.

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02/23/2007 01:32 PM