MGM Park will be viewed as a neutral site next week when the Conference USA Baseball Championship begins play, but one thing’s for sure: the Southern Miss Golden Eagles will be the No. 1 seed.
In fact, as Conference USA rolls into its final week of the baseball season, half of the tournament field has been solidified. The tournament takes place May 24-28 at MGM Park and before national audiences on ESPN3 and the CBS Sports Network.
The Golden Eagles are joined in the field right now by Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech and Florida Atlantic. Five teams are battling for the other four spots, with UTSA and Charlotte at 15-12 in league play, Rice at 14-13 and FIU and Marshall are 12-15.
The final weekend of league play begins Thursday night and is scheduled to conclude on Saturday afternoon. After the conclusion of Saturday’s games, the entire opening day schedule will be announced. In fact, the opening day schedule has been set to determine when each seed will play its opening game.
The championship is being sponsored by Overtime Sports and presented by The First, A National Banking Association.
Southern Miss has clinched the regular season championship and conference rules state that the No. 1 seed gets to select what time it will play its opening game on Wednesday, with the remainder of the schedule to fall in place once that has been determined. The defending tournament champion Golden Eagles have opted to play the 4 p.m. contest on the first day of the double-elimination tournament against the No. 8 seed.
With Southern Miss and the No. 8 seed playing at 4 p.m., that means that the No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed will take place after that game to complete one side of the bracket. In the other bracket, the championship will begin with the No. 3 and No. 6 seed playing at 9 a.m. and the No. 2 and No. 7 seed squaring off at 12:30 p.m.
The First’s 2017 Conference USA Championship returns to a neutral site for the first time since 2012 and just the sixth time in the league’s history. Three-year old MGM Park is hosting the league’s 22nd championship. The Championship Game on Sunday, May 28 will be nationally-televised by CBS Sports Network, while all other games will be available on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.
Get your tickets: A number of ticket packages are available. There’s a $165 championship pass that gets you into every game with the same reserved seat. Also available are $35, two-sessions passes for Wednesday or Thursday, and a $16 ticket for the championship game on Sunday. Call the MGM Park box office at 228-207-3612 or visit TicketFly.com. To see more about the conference, including a 30 second video, click here.
Game Schedule
Wednesday, May 24 (available on ESPN3)
Game 1 – (6 seed) vs. (3 seed) – 9 a.m.
Game 2 – (7 seed) vs. (2 seed) – 12:30 p.m.
Game 3 – (8 seed) vs. (1) Southern Miss – 4 p.m.
Game 4 – (5 seed) vs. (4 seed) – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 25 (available on ESPN3)
Game 5 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 – 9 a.m.
Game 6 – Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 – 12:30 p.m.
Game 7 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 – 4 p.m.
Game 8 – Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 – 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 26 (available on ESPN3)
Game 9 – Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7 – 3 p.m.
Game 10 – Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 8 – 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 27 (available on ESPN3)
Game 11 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9 – 9 a.m.
Game 12 – Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10 – 12:30 p.m.
Game 13 – Same teams as Game 11 – 4 p.m. (if necessary)
Game 14 – Same teams as Game 12 – 7:30 p.m. (if necessary)
Sunday, May 28 (televised by CBS Sports Network)
Championship Game – 1 p.m.
