Baseball team headed west

South Florida baseball will look to improve its 2-4 record at the Coca-Cola Classic tournament hosted by Rice University in Houston this weekend.

The Bulls will face strong competition in Houston as they take on Texas-Arlington, Rice and Louisiana-Lafayette throughout the three-day tournament.

South Florida will open the tournament Friday against UTA, which competed in the Houston NCAA Regional Tournament last season hosted by Rice. Sophomore Jon Uhl will make his third start on Friday. Uhl is 1-1 on the season with his first win coming at Jacksonville on Feb. 17.

The Bulls’ second opponent in the tournament, Rice, is ranked No. 6 according to Baseball America. Senior John Gorham (1-1) will make the Saturday start. Gorham is also coming off a win in Jacksonville. He made his only start of the season Feb. 16 when he pitched a complete nine innings in the Bulls’ 6-1 victory.

The Bulls will end the tournament against Louisiana-Lafayette, which is ranked No. 22 according to Collegiate Baseball Weekly. The Ragin’ Cajuns squad did not make a tournament appearance last season, but it did participate in the College World Series in 2000. Senior Jason Bartz (0-1) will take the mound Sunday against ULL. Bartz has a 0.00 ERA after 13 innings of pitching. He got his first loss Tuesday at home against Jacksonville when an unearned run in the 13th inning ended the game 7-6.

Friday and Saturday’s start time is 1 p.m. with a noon start on Sunday.

  • Jarrett Guthrie