Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Charlotte
MT Set For C-USA Tournament
5/26/2021 8:13:00 AM | Baseball
RUSTON, La. — Middle Tennessee is in a position it hasn't experienced in quite a while.
With a pair of wins in the regular season's final series against FIU, the Blue Raiders clinched their first trip to the Conference USA Tournament since 2015. To say they're excited for the chance to be back would be an understatement.
"No one on the team has been to the tournament, including the coaching staff, so it was very exciting to get back there," head coach Jim Toman said. "I give the players all the credit. … They got it done against FIU and kept us ahead of some pretty good teams, and we're excited to be in the tournament."
First-round opponent:
The Raiders (23-27-1, 12-19-1) are the No. 8 seed, and they don't get to ease into their first conference tournament in six years. They'll do battle with the regular-season champion Charlotte 49ers (39-17, 24-8), currently ranked 22nd in the nation, at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Charlotte was the surprise champion of the league after being picked to finish fifth out of six teams in the East Division in the preseason.
"I kind of like going in that we don't have any pressure on us. They're the one seed; they're the team that's supposed to win," Toman said.
The 49ers have gotten it done due in large part to their stellar offense, led by Player of the Year candidate Austin Knight. He leads the team with a .355 average (LuJames Groover III is right behind him at .353) and is tops in the nation with 28 doubles. Knight also places in the top five in the league in several other offensive categories.
As a team, Charlotte holds a .299 average, fourth-best in the league, and have scored the second-most runs in C-USA. Their ERA is fifth-best, at 5.21, while their pitching staff has struck out a league-best 522 batters.
It will be a strength-against-strength matchup, as MT will counter the 49ers' offense with a stellar pitching staff that finished the regular season second in C-USA with a 3.88 ERA and .241 opponents' batting average.
Junior right-hander Aaron Brown has been the Blue Raiders' ace all season, and he could be in line for the start Wednesday. He paces C-USA and is tied for 20th nationally with 107 strikeouts.
"We have a good pitching staff and we've been playing pretty good defense," Toman said. "I think if we play a clean game and don't walk guys, I think we can have some success."
Middle Tennessee will have to find a way to manufacture some runs, and it could do so with its team speed.
Shortstop Fausto Lopez and third baseman Brett Coker rank third and fourth, respectively, in the league with 21 and 16 steals. The team leads C-USA by a wide margin with 103 steals — UAB is second with 68 — which ranks seventh nationally.
"We're pretty loose and have had a great few weeks of practice," Toman said. "That's exactly how you want to play this time of year. You want to be loose and have fun."
The winner will move on to play the winner of Old Dominion and Florida Atlantic, the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively. The loser will move into the loser's bracket and play the loser of that game.
Around the league:
LA Tech took the C-USA West Division this season en route to the No. 2 seed. Preseason C-USA favorite Southern Miss, the 2019 tournament champion, finished second in the West and is the three seed.
Offensive juggernaut ODU (league-best 418 runs scored this season) finished second in the East and is the third seed, while FAU, the preseason favorite to win the East, came in third and grabbed the fifth seed.
MT rival WKU finished in the fourth spot in the East to earn a bid to the tournament, and UTSA finished 2.5 games ahead of the Blue Raiders for third in the West.
Four teams — No. 18 LA Tech, No. 19 Southern Miss, No. 22 Charlotte and No. 24 ODU — finished in the top 25 of D1baseball.com's final regular-season national rankings.
MT vs. tournament teams this season:
No. 1 Charlotte: 0-0
No. 2 LA Tech: 0-4
No. 3 Southern Miss: 0-4
No. 4 ODU: 0-0
No. 5 FAU: 0-0
No. 6 WKU: 2-2
No. 7 UTSA: 1-3
More tournament info:
The double-elimination tournament is broken into two brackets. The winners of each will play a single-elimination championship game on Sunday, May 30, with the champion earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN+ will carry every tournament game through Saturday, with the championship set to air on CBS Sports Network.
Blue Raider fans can listen locally on WGNS at 1450 AM, 100.5 FM or 101.9 FM or on TuneIn.
