C-USA brackets are set|Rice earns the the top seed

Published 6:39 pm Sunday, May 23, 2010

By Staff
ECU Sports Information
IRVING, Texas – After winning the 2010 Conference USA regular season title, Rice will be the No.1 seed at the C-USA Baseball Championship, which begins Wednesday at Cougar Field in Houston.
The Owls secured their fourth regular-season crown in five years with a win over UAB on Thursday. For Rice (35-20), it marks the 15th consecutive season that the Owls have won a conference championship, dating back to 1995, the final year of the Southwest Conference.
The 2010 Conference USA Championship will feature the top six teams in regular-season league play. Those six will be split into two three-team pools (or pods), with the winner of each pod playing in a single championship game. Teams are assigned pods based on seed, which are determined by the order of finish in regular-season conference play.
Southern Miss, Memphis, Marshall, Houston and East Carolina were the other five teams that earned a berth in this year’s championship.
Each team is guaranteed to play three games. Teams in each pod will play two teams in its pod and one team outside its pod. The team with the best composite record in each pod will advance to the championship game. Two-way ties in a pod would be broken by head-to-head play. In case of a three-way tie, the highest seed will advance.
The higher seed will be the home team in games on days one and three and in the championship game. Teams that were the visitors on day one will be the home team on day two.
Pod number one features No.1 seed Rice, No. 4 seed Marshall and No. 5 seed Houston. Pod number two includes No. 2 seed Southern Miss, No. 3 seed Memphis and No. 6 seed East Carolina.
 Makeup of the Pods and Schedule of Play.
Pod 1 (Seeds 1, 4 and 5) Pod 2 (Seeds 2, 3 and 6)
Rice vs. 4, 5 and 6 Southern Miss vs. 3, 5 and 6
Marshall vs. 1, 3 and 5 Memphis vs. 2, 4 and 6
Houston vs. 1, 2 and 4 East Carolina vs. 1, 2 and 3
Game Schedule
(All times central)
Wed., May 26
Game 1 Southern Miss vs. Memphis 11am
Game 2 Rice vs. East Carolina 3 p.m.
Game 3 Marshall vs. Houston 7 p.m.
Thurs., May 27
Game 4 Southern Miss vs. East Carolina 11 a.m.
Game 5 Memphis vs. Marshall 3 p.m.
Game 6 Rice vs. Houston 7 p.m.
Fri., May 28
Game 7 Memphis vs. East Carolina 11:00a
Game 8 Rice vs. Marshall 3:00p
Game 9 Southern Miss vs. Houston 7:00p
Sat., May 29
Championship Game 7:00p
(CBS College Sports)
Each game of the championship will be streamed live on ConferenceUSA.com. The championship game of the tournament on Saturday, May 29 will be televised live by CBS College Sports, beginning at 7 p.m. CDT. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.