TAMPA, Fla. – When does a team fly home feeling good about a tie game? When it battles back from a five-run deficit in its last at-bat to knot the score. That’s what USF did March 30 at conference foe Wichita State, a weekend series in which the Bulls went 1-1-1.
“That was a key turning point for us,” said Ken Eriksen, in his 29th season leading the program. “We did the same thing in Charlotte, down 2-0 with two outs in the seventh inning and we ended up sweeping that series.”
Yes they did. A three-run seventh secured a 3-2 win to jumpstart a three-game series sweep at Charlotte in mid-March.
So, when the Bulls came roaring back from an early 4-0 deficit against North Texas on Sunday afternoon, plating a pair of runners in the fourth and three in the sixth to win 5-4, it seemed like old hat. It was also and exhilarating way to win their first conference title as a member of the American.
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“We don’t have any superstars, but collectively it’s a gang out there,” said Eriksen, who has a superstar’s coaching resume having piled up 1,160 wins since taking over the Bulls in 1997.
The gang will travel to the state capital on Friday (Noon, ESPNU) for a first-round NCAA tournament clash with Auburn. The host Seminoles and Robert Morris University are also in the Tallahassee regional.
This season has played in a manner that conjures up memories of 2012 when the Bulls made it to the College World Series, the only such appearance in the program’s previous 40 seasons.
“This team is on that type of trajectory with the demeanor, the maturity, and capacity to play the game,” said Eriksen, who has now led USF to 17 NCAA tourneys. “Right now, I am probably having the most fun I have ever had.”
The players are having some fun, too. After all, you don’t go 43-14-1 without having some good times, including the aforementioned rallies.
“Our goal was to create a team where everyone is comfortable and everyone can be themselves and play at the highest ability,” said catcher and grad student Josie Foreman, who is hitting .350 with a team-leading 25 extra-base hits (10 homers) and 47 RBI. “I think that is what we did and it shows with our success. That is the most exciting thing about this season.”
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